The Arashi Chronicles
by RasenganRendan
Summary: AU, Yondaime had just sealed Kyuubi into Naruto, but before Shinigami can devore him he seals himself into another. Follow the two boys lives as they become shinobi and follow their dream to become Hokage. HinaxOC and many others. Read and Review please
1. Early Years

**Disclaimer: **I do NOT own Naruto.

In the long history of the world, there have been instances where great power is bestowed upon a Shinobi. The greatest and most powerful of these Shinobi was the Yondaime Hokage of Konoha; he was the strongest in terms of power, speed, and chakra reserves. He was the strongest Shinobi to ever appear in the world so far, he also was the only person who could fight evenly with the Biju, so when the Kyuubi no Yoko attacked Konoha he was the only one who was able to save his people from doom. Yondaime battled Kyuubi for what seemed like hours until he decided that the only way to save Konoha and his people was to sacrifice himself and seal the Kyuubi inside his newborn son, Naruto Uzumaki.

Despite the pain, loneliness, prejudice, suffering, segregation, neglect, and overall hatred that his son would have to endure while having Kyuubi sealed inside of him, it was the only possible way to save everyone in the village. He would have sealed Kyuubi inside himself but a Biju can't be sealed inside an adult, therefore he needed a newborn and the only one was Naruto, he had been born 10 minutes before the battle began. Yondaime had to protect his family, and by being a Hokage of Konoha he believed that made everyone in the village a member of his family. With despair in his heart for the life Naruto will have to live he gathered the chakra needed to call the Shinigami for the Shiki Fūjin, and with a scream of agony and hatred Kyuubi was sealed inside of Naruto.

With the successful seal of Kyuubi, Yondaime embraced his death as payment for the way Naruto will have to live, fully giving his soul over to the Shinigami. But then something happened that Yondaime did not intend for, when his soul left his body to be eaten by the Shinigami it collided with a soul going down to the village to inhabit a newborn child. Quickly, Yondaime sealed himself inside of the child's spirit thusly cheating the Shinigami. Despite the fact that he was imprisoned inside of this child's soul in the same way that Kyuubi was sealed inside Naruto, he thought that at least now he could watch his son grow up into a fine man, and maybe jut maybe help him out. Little did Yondaime know how much his container would be involved with Naruto's life.

As the newborn boy took his first breath and gradually opened his eyes to the world, everyone in to room looked on in shock at his eyes. They were nothing like the normal jet black eyes of the Himura clan; instead they were a deep beautiful cerulean blue. There was only one other person alive now that had those eyes and one dead person, but they were even more spectacular than Naruto's were, there was a deepness and powerful look coming from them. The as of yet un-named boy looked at his mother who was as pale as a ghost from all the blood she had lost during the birth, she instantly knew the perfect name as soon as she same those beautiful eyes she had know most of her life. She only said one word before she slipped off into a slumber she would never awaken from. "…Arashi…." She said with a smile on her face, leaving young Arashi alone in the world. Everyone else in the Himura clan had died in the battle with Kyuubi including Arashi's father. That day, October 10th, would forever live in the minds of the villagers as a day of victory and great lose. Two new lives were now left empty, but not alone; Naruto Uzumaki and Arashi Himura.

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**(6 years later)**

"Slow down Arashi!! You know I'm not as good as you at chakra jumping!" said a 6 year old blonde.

"Then this will be good practice for you Naruto. You could use it, we go into the academy in 2 years but we still need to train hard so we can beat up anyone who tries to hurt us like those villagers!" Laughed a boy with similar eyes but with light brown hair that swept upwards and to the right slightly, a look that gained some odd looks when the villagers thought also of a certain masked Jonin.

"But we need to get back to the orphanage for lunch, you know they don't feed us if we are even a little bit late. Plus, you now I hate going this way through town, everyone glares at us and it makes me feel really bad." As tears started to form in the blonde's eyes the other one stopped and turned around to look at Naruto.

"I know they hate us, and I know it isn't fair but we didn't do anything to them. I mean they throw rocks at us and curse us, I don't get why they do it, but it seems that they really don't like you. I mean when I go out by myself the people just tell me that I shouldn't be friends with you." Arashi said with a puzzled look on his face. "But I just tell them to blow it out their asses!" He blurted out laughing, trying to make his friend cheer up. Naruto perked up a bit and smiled his trademark foxy grin. "Anyway your right we need to get back home, I'm starving Naruto!" With that they speed away back towards the orphanage that had been their home for as long as they could remember. They had always been friends as long as they could remember too, it happened when they found out that they both had the same birthday when they were 4, after that they secretly celebrated it together on a day when everyone else was mourning.

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_(Flashback)_

"_Hey, why are you sad? Did your parents die in the Kyuubi attack too?" Asked a 4 year old Arashi._

"_Yeah, but that's not why I'm sad, it's because it's my birthday and only Hokage-oji-san has said happy birthday to me. He gave me a chakra control scroll, but I feel so lonely with only one person." Remarked a younger Naruto showing Arashi his scroll._

"_Well at least you got something from Hokage-sama, I didn't get anything today, no one at all" said Arashi with tears in his eyes._

"_Your birthday is today too?"_

"_Yeah, and Happy Birthday to you by the way."_

"_Thanks, I'm Naruto Uzumaki what's your name?"_

"_I'm Arashi Himura, nice to meet you Naruto-san, I 'm going to go to bed now because I don't have anything else to do today."_

"_Anou…Arashi-san…would you like to read the scroll with me and do some chakra exercises?"_

"_Hai!" Said Arashi grinning a huge smile. _

_The two children spent the rest of the day reading the scroll and practicing the steps in it. It was the beginning of both of the boy's first friendship._

_(End Flashback)_

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When the two boys got back to the orphanage they were greeted by scowls from the staff, they went in and got their lunch, ate it and then quickly left before any of the other kids tried to pick on them. Arashi suggested that they go see Hokage-sama and ask if he could go to the library for them to get some scrolls.

"Come on in boys." Said Sandime Hokage warmly.

"Hokage-oji-san!!" Yelled Naruto happily as he jumped on the old man.

"Naruto you can't do that anymore, I'm getting too old and you're getting too big" Laughed the aged Hokage as he set the bundle of energy known as Naruto back on the ground.

"Hokage-sama, could you please go to the library and pick up some chakra control scrolls for us?" Asked Arashi in a respectful tone.

"Arashi, I've told you that you can call me Hokage-san, I really don't care for that title. Why do you need me to go get it for you, can't you two go get it?"

"Anou...Hokage-oji-san, they don't let us in there, they chase us away and yell at us and call Naruto a demon or something."

"Yeah they are really mean to us and we can't get the scrolls we need, we already mastered the last 5 you gave us for our birthday 4 months ago!" The Uzumaki proclaimed to back up what his friend was saying.

'Hmmm, so they have already mastered those 5 scrolls, those were academy scrolls. They are progressing at an amazing rate, maybe I should see just how far along they are.'

"Well how about something even better than getting you two some more scrolls?"

The two boys' faces light up at the suggestion. "Like what?" The two asked.

"How about I teach you a control exercise personally?"

Their faces light up even more if that was possible at the suggestion of a personal lesson from the Hokage himself.

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" The said in unison.

"But there is one condition, that you tell no one that I taught you this."

"Anou…why Hokage-san?" Asked Arashi inquisitively.

"Because if I gave out lessons to you and everyone knew about it, then I would have to teach everyone!" Laughed the old man. 'Also because if might upset the villagers greatly, and they might just do something drastic.' He thought pondering where he could to this secretively.

"Hai, I see Hokage-oji-san, you don't want the other kids to know we are your favorites." Grinned Naruto very fox like.

The Hokage laughed at his comment and patter him on the head, ruffling up his unruly blonde hair. "Alright, you two come and meet me at the edge of the forest in front of Ichiraku's and will have a nice day of training, ok?"

"Hai Hokage-oji-san, but could we get lunch at Ichiraku's? Pleeeease??" Begged the blonde.

"Of course we can Naruto, why do you think I chose there?" Chuckled Sandaime. "Okay then, meet me there at seven o-clock tomorrow morning, and be prepared to show me what you can do."

"Okay Hokage-san, see you tomorrow." Both boys said as they left full of smiles.

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As the boys were leaping across the rooftops of Konoha on their way back to the orphanage they were wondering what the Hokage meant by his last statement.

"Hey Arashi, what do think Hokage-oji-san meant by "be prepared to show me what you can do" I don't get what hew could mean."

"Well I think it means that we are going to be training hard tomorrow, so we should get a good nights sleep so we will have as much chakra as we can. Maybe we should show Hokage-san those jutsu we have been working on." Snickered Arashi. "You have that one down really well, and I can't get it yet, could you help me out on it tomorrow?"

"Sure, but you gotta tell me how to do those ones that you are so good at" Laughed Naruto.

"Ok, it's a deal. But lets hurry back, its getting kind of late."

"Hai."

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As they approached the orphanage, Naruto suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong Naruto-kun?"

"Look, someone is in our room. I know I didn't leave the light on when we left." Just as he said, there were indeed three people inside of the room the two shared, and from what they could see the people were trashing and destroying everything in their room. They sat there and watched until the men were gone. Then they went in through the window to asses the damage that had been done, it wasn't like it was the first time this had happened. Lots of people hated Naruto for some unknown reason and would come and trash the place in hopes of finding Naruto and Arashi in there and teach them a lesson to keep Naruto in his place and to maybe get Arashi away from Naruto. But this time it was different, it wasn't just trashed, it was destroyed. There were kunai gashes all over their beds, and the words "filthy demon brat" were painted all over the walls, then there was something there that instantly caught Naruto's attention. In front of the door, there was a trip wire attached to an exploding tag…they were trying to kill the boys!

"We have to get out of here Arashi, now!"

"Why? What's wrong?"

Naruto simply pointed to the trap. Arashi's eyes widened, then nodded to Naruto to leave. Then the tag ignited, just as the boys were leaving.

"RUN!" Naruto screamed. They had just jumped to the next building, when their room erupted in flames. After the hellfire of flames died down all that was left in the room was the burnt metal frame of their beds. "Arashi…" Naruto said with a look of pained seriousness. "We can never come back here."

"What are we going to do Naruto-kun? Where are we going to sleep? What about our training tomorrow with Hokage-san?"

"Simple, we will just sleep in the forest tonight and wait for Hokage-oji-san there and we can talk to him about it. I mean he is the Hokage, I'm sure he might be able to help us out." He said this with a smile trying to hide the pain and guilt he felt in his heart.

"Okay, lets go Naruto."

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When they got to the woods outside of Ichiraku's they were exhausted, they had ran as fast as their legs and chakra could take them. When they finally found a spot to lay down Arashi looked over at his friend and saw that he was hiding something from him.

"Naruto, what's wrong? Why do you look so sad?"

"Anou…it's nothing Arashi-kun."

"No, there is something. I know you better than anyone, you can't hide things from me." He said with a frown.

"Well, I guess I feel guilty."

"Guilty?"

"Yeah, you could have died if we hadn't have gone through the window, all because the people hate me so much. You could have been killed for being my friend! Why do you put up with it, why be my friend if it could cost you your life?"

"Naruto, we are all we have in this world, with maybe Hokage-san as an exception. But let me ask you something, would you still be my friend if it was me they hated?"

"Of course I would, but that's not the point…oh yeah I guess it is." He said with a smile rubbing the back of his neck.

"Don't worry about, we'll talk to Hokage-san tomorrow about it, now lets get some sleep."

With that the two boys fell asleep in the tall grass around the base of a big tree. But that night Arashi would have a dream that was different than any other dream he had ever had before.

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Arashi found himself in a hallway, with torches and piping on the walls, there was about 3 or 4 inches of standing water on the ground. It was kind of dark but not too dark, but there was a yellow glow coming from down the hall and around some corners. As he went to follow the light he heard a booming voice call out to him, the voice way very loud and powerful but it also help kindness and compassion in it. "**I'm sorry to inform you Arashi that you can't come any closer than there for now, as much as I wish you could I can't allow it. But I'm very proud of you for being a wonderful person and being such a great friend to Naruto."**

"Who are you, and how do you know about Naruto? Why can't I come closer to you, I'm curious about you who are you?

"**Lets just say I'm a friend right now, believe me I'll tell you more over time. I know about Naruto because I'm in here all the time, here inside your mind. But now more importantly, I want to teach you a jutsu for being able to get here." **Yondaime smiled as he talked to the boy from afar, he really liked this kid he really reminded him of himself as a kid.

"A Jutsu? You serious? Thank you Voice-sama!" Arashi said gleefully. "What's the Jutsu?"

"**It's a very useful jutsu in combat, in fact you would have learned it in the academy, but I think you should know it now in case something like last night ever happens again."**

"Wait how do you know about last night? Oh right your in my mind. So what's the jutsu?"

"**Kawarimi no Jutsu, or Substitution jutsu."**

"All right, that means I'll be able to avoid all kinds of things when Naruto and I spar, I'll get a lot faster too! Thank you Voice-sama." Arashi yelled, jumping up and down. The rest of the night Arashi learned and mastered the Kawarimi jutsu, he couldn't wait to tell Naruto and show Hokage-san.

"**Oh and by the way, you aren't allowed to tell Naruto who or where you learned this jutsu, so I would advise you not to use it tomorrow or until you are taught it at the academy."**

"But that's a year away! It's so cool I know this now, why can't I show everyone?"

"**That is because a good Shinobi doesn't show of****f his jutsu or brag about them, they should only be used when necessary, if you find yourself in a situation where you need to use it, the please use it to get out of danger. Also you shouldn't tell anyone about me because that might have people think you are weird, but anyway it's time for you to wake up I think your going to have a long day." **Yondaime chuckled, before Arashi woke up to find the sun up and Naruto already awake, warming up for the day.

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When Sarutobi got to Ichiraku's he felt that the boys were already in the woods, so went over to see them. When he got near he saw that they were having a quick sparring session before their lessons with him. 'Always looking to improve themselves, they will be fine Shinobi indeed.' He thought with a smile. "Hey boys, it looks like you are early." He called out to them. They quickly whipped their heads around to see the Hokage watching them practice their Taijutsu.

"Good morning Hokage-sensei, so what are we going to be learning today?" asked Naruto.

"Please still call me Hokage-san, I'm not a sensei anymore, I'm just helping you out boys." He said with a smile remembering his old students. 'These boys show even more potential than you did at their age Jiraiya.' "But before I teach you anything, I want to know what jutsu if any you know, to see what we can do from there. Ok Naruto you first, tell me then show me the application."

"Hai." He did a few hand signs and then said "Futon: Zephyr no Jutsu" Then a cool wind began to blow around Naruto. After about a minute he dispelled the jutsu and the wind died down. "Well that's all the power I can get behind it right now, I really just use it to cool down if I get to hot actually." He laughed as he rubbed his neck while grinning. "I do have another one though, its actually a combat one." After some more hand signs he called out "Doton: Rock Fist no Jutsu" He slammed his fists into the ground and when he pulled them out there was a hard rock coating on his fists, very true to the jutsu's name. He then proceeded to punch a nearby tree, leaving a foot wide gaping hole in the trunk, gaining a wide eyed look from the aged Hokage.

"Wow, Naruto that is an impressive jutsu for someone your age. Also a wind jutsu is a very hard one to master, I'm very proud of you."

"Thanks Hokage-oji-san, but Arashi can do more jutsu than me. But only I can do the Zephyr." He said with his trademarked grin.

"Oh really, but remember this Naruto, it's not the number of jutsu you have. But how well you use the ones you can do. Very well lets see what you can do Arashi."

"Ok, here we go" After the hand signs he said "Katon: Heat Gathering" He focused on a pile of leaves nearby and then they suddenly leapt up into flames. Then very quickly he made 3 more hand signs "Suiton: Water Gathering" Then a mass of water materialized as the moisture in the air was condensed and dropped on the fire, putting it out.

"Amazing, for someone your age to have a fire And water jutsu, that is astonishing. So anything else Arashi?"

"Hai. Raiton: Static Fist" With that, small sparks shot out from Arashi's clenched fist. "If I hit someone with this it numbs them so I can get them again with a better hit. Also I can do Doton: Rock Fist Jutsu, but you pretty much already saw that, mine isn't as good as Naruto's but it can get the job done." Arashi said smiling much like Naruto. "Plus Naruto and I know all kinds of stealth and hiding jutsu and a few basic genjutsu. But Naruto is a lot better at taijutsu than me, he is just stronger and he has a whole bunch more chakra than me too, but I think I have a lot too. Also we can channel chakra to specific areas to help us in speed, power, agility, and combat." With this explanation Sandaime was astonished and the speed and amount of things the two had picked up, he was amazed at Naruto for his stamina and chakra holds and the speed he grasped concepts, and with Arashi he had almost unlimited potential with the amount of jutsu he already knew and the difficulty that they were. The chakra control was well above that of an academy student and they still had 2 years till they could enter it, with his assessment of Arashi so far he could easily compare him with Orochimaru in terms of potential and Naruto with Kakashi or Jiraiya.

'He can do four different elemental jutsu? No one should be able to do that at his age!' "Boys, I'm at a lose of words. I haven't seen this amount of potential in young Shinobi since my students, and I'm sure you know who they were." The boy's eyes widened at the fact that they were being compared to the Sannin. "Well I guess its time for me to get to what I was going to teach you. First I will teach you a chakra control exercise that will help you in maintaining chakra in a given spot." With that he picked up two leaves and place them on the boy's foreheads. "Now concentrate your chakra on the leaf and make it spin just above your forehead" They watched as he demonstrated. They quickly got it and within 3 hours they had reached Sandaime's satisfaction in the drill. Sandaime was very pleased with their progress. "Okay boys, I think its just about time to eat, don't you think? I know that I'm getting very hungry, you must be starving." They nodded their heads furiously, seeing as how they hadn't had dinner the previous night either.

"Oji-san, when we get back here Arashi and I have something that we need to talk to you about, ok?" Sandaime detected the nervousness in his voice and figured it had to do with the explosion the previous night. He thought that they might have caused it, but figured that he would let them tell him instead of interrogating them.

"Okay that's fine boys, well lets go eat. My treat." They all went to Ichiraku's and had a great meal, you would have thought that Naruto hadn't eaten in a week by the amount he ate, at the end Arashi had 2 bowls, Sandaime had 2, but Naruto and his ever expanding stomach had an astounding 12 bowls, the other two just stared at him in disbelief as he downed them all. No matter how many times Arashi say this spectacle he would never get used to it, and every time Yondaime chuckled at the fact his son is exactly like him in the food department. Now that they had finished they headed back to the forest to continue their training for the day.

"Ok, now what was it that you wanted to tell me Naruto?" He was expecting an apology for the explosion the other day, but instead Naruto broke out in tears and jumped on the Old Man in a huge hug.

"Oji-san, we went back to the orphanage after our meeting with you and when we got there we noticed that there were men in our room. We waited until they left and went in through the window and everything was completely destroyed. There was even an exploding tag trip wire rigged up to the door! T-T-They tried to kill Arashi and I! We don't know what to do, they wrote all kinds of stuff on the walls about a demon brat, and then the tag blew up just as we left. We could have died, and its all because the villagers hate me, I'm sure of it! They want me dead, and they pulled Arashi into it, I'm afraid I don't want my friend to get hurt because of me. We have no where to live anymore, because I know we aren't welcome back there. We slept out here last night, is there anything you can do to help us? Please Oji-san." There was a look of terror in Naruto's eyes that Sandaime had never seen before, also he couldn't believe that the villagers would go that far. He just looked at the boys with a look of shock.

"Is this true Arashi? Is Naruto speaking the truth?"

"Hai, Hokage-san. Could you please help us, I don't want anything bad to happen to Naruto."

"I'm going to alert this to ANBU and have an investigation put into action, these men will not go unpunished. Also I might be able to secure two apartments for you two, after all I am the Hokage I'm sure I could pull a few strings. But I will not have two of Konoha's brightest young stars living on the streets or in the forest. After we are done for the day you two are coming back home with me for the night, I will straighten this all out for you two and get you both a place by tomorrow, ok?"

"Anou…Oji-san, we really appreciate your kindness but do you think that we could get an apartment together?"

"I'm sorry Naruto but that really wouldn't be safe, if this were to ever happen again then you both could be targets instead of one. I know that sounds heartless but it is true, it is easier to protect you both if you are apart. Do you understand? But I could try to get two apartments in the same complex, to make it easier on you."

"That does make sense Hokage-san, thank you very much. Anou, what is the second exercise we are going to be doing?" With that the white haired Hokage laughed out loud.

"Sharp as always, eh Arashi? You both are going to turn out as excellent Shinobi." Seeing their smiling faces again after the period of frowns and tears, it just made him smile. Naruto had such an infectious smile you couldn't help but to smile too. "Well the second exercise is nothing like the leaf spin. You will be climbing trees." He stated plainly.

"Climbing Trees!?!" Yelled Naruto. "How is climbing trees going to help with chakra control??"

"You didn't let me finish Naruto. I meant to say that you will be climbing trees without your hands." He waited for another out burst from Naruto.

"How the HELL do we do that??"

"Calm down Naruto, just watch." With that he calmly walked over to the nearest tree and walker straight up side of the tree till he reached a branch about 60 feet up and then proceeded to walk upside down and then say "That is how you do it Naruto, you need to gather a set amount of chakra to the bottom of your feet and walk up the tree keeping that set amount of chakra coming out at a constant rate, not enough chakra and you will fall, too much and you will break into the tree and then fall or possible go through the tree. Here use these to mark your progress." He then threw two kunai down in front of their feet. "You might want to take a running start, it might help you at this stage." He said smiling, he knew that it would rather funny at first.

The two boys picked up the kunai, nodded to each other, then gathered the chakra at the souls of their feet and ran at the tree closest to them. Naruto got about 5 feet up the tree, then he simply fell off and landed on his face in a rather comical fashion, Sandaime couldn't help but laugh. Arashi did a little better, he got about 10 feet up before his foot cracked through the trunk and he jumped off to save himself the embarrassment of landing like his blonde friend. They continued running up the tree for about 4 more hours until Naruto had gotten about 30 feet up and Arashi had gotten about 40 feet up.

"Ok that's enough for today boys, lets all go back to my place and we can have a nice dinner, then you can go to sleep while I find you two a place to live. I'm sure you both are exhausted from all the work you have done today." He looked over to see them both laying on the ground panting like and Inuzuka. He chuckled and told them to come along. As they were walking out of the woods, they noticed that there was a rather large group of people at Ichiraku's. Arashi looked at the group and saw something he couldn't look away from. It was a little girl his age who had short black hair with hints of violet in it, also she had almost perfectly white eyes with no pupils but there was a small hint of lavender in her eyes. There was something about her that just grabbed his attention. Naruto was currently talking Sandaime's ear off about how he can't wait for dinner and to have an apartment all to himself tomorrow. Sandaime's then noticed that Arashi was looking at the group, when there was a tug at his robe, he looked down to see Arashi with a question on his mind. "What is it Arashi?"

"Who is girl over there at Ichiraku's?" He asked very quietly.

"Hmmm let me see, oh that would be little Hinata Hyuuga, the daughter of the Head of the Hyuuga Clan." He then heard something that was hardly audible come out of Arashi's mouth that made him smile greatly.

"She's beautiful…" He said quietly to himself. He then noticed that she was looking at him too, he then gave her a smile and a small wave. He saw that she then blushed and gave a barely visible wave back. Sandaime saw all of this and couldn't help but smile to himself as they made their way to the Hokage's house.

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The Hyuugas were enjoying a nice relaxing night out at Ichiraku's, everyone was enjoying themselves, especially Hiashi Hyuuga. It was one of the few times where he could relax a bit and enjoy some ramen. He was talking with another Main House member when he felt a tug at his robe, he looked down to see the adorable face of his eldest daughter Hinata.

"Yes Hinata? Is there something you want?" He asked with a rare feature, a smile.

"Anou…h-h-hai Ota-san, anou…"

"Out with it Hinata."

"W-who is t-that walking w-w-with H-Hokage-sama?" Hiashi looked up to see Arashi walking on their side of the street, Naruto was hidden on the other side of Sandaime.

"Well that is the last of the Himuras, Arashi Himura." He knew of Arashi's clan, and their power, and kekkei genkai of the clan. Even though it was a rarity that it was awoken, it was a formitable one. "I knew his parents well." He said with a sad face remembering his youth. "Why do you ask Hinata?" She blushed heavily at this question, Hiashi was taken back because he had never seen her do that.

"Anou…w-well you see, I-I-I j-just…" She looked down to try and hide her blush. "W-w-well" Then she said very quietly. "I t-think his eyes a-are r-really p-p-pretty." With that Hiashi simply laughed, but in a polite way in order to not hurt his daughter's feelings.

"Well what could be pretty about a Himura's black eyes?" He asked her.

"Nani? B-but Ota-san, h-his eyes are a r-r-really pretty b-blue." Hiashi then looked behind him and caught Arashi looking their way, what he saw was the deep majestic cerulean eyes that belonged to the last Himura alive.

'That can't be, Himura eyes are jet black, just like Uchiha eyes. Those look more like…no, I couldn't be like his. Why does he have your eyes Yondaime, my old friend?'

"They are very blue Hinata, I guess your right." He chuckled. Surprisingly he then saw the boy wave at Hinata, then even more surprisingly, he saw he shy little daughter give a tiny wave back at the boy while blushing. When he saw that the Hokage and the boy were gone and out of sight, he looked down at his daughter who had promptly fainted as soon as they were out of sight. "Hinata! Well it looks like we all need to get back to that compound." He said while lightly chuckling. 'This had been an interesting night indeed' Thought the Hyuuga Head.

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After the boys had eaten their fill of dinner, which was an astonishing amount for Naruto. They started to talk about things.

"Naruto, where on Earth do you put all of that food? You eat so much but your still small, where does it all go?" Asked the Hokage laughing as he said so. He hadn't had such a fun day in years, but there was still a very serious matter that he needed to address when the boys went to bed.

"I don't know Oji-san, I just know that when I'm hungry I need to eat so I eat till I'm not hungry." He said while rubbing his neck.

"Well that will eventually turn into a very expensive habit young man" He said with a grin. "About your training…" Both boys perked up to hear what he was about to say. "I know that you are both strong and that you have enormous chakra stores for someone your age, but a great Shinobi had vast amounts of chakra, do you know how to increase your chakra capacity?" The boys then looked deep in thought, until Naruto spoke up.

"Anou, you train really hard right?" Sandaime laughed hard at that comment.

"Hai, Naruto that is a way but there is also another way, a good way to supplement your training." The boy's eyes shot up at him like it was the biggest secret ever kept from them. "When you use almost all of your chakra and then go to sleep, your body naturally builds your chakra back up to its fullest, but it also makes your capacity more so you won't get exhausted the next day. If you take advantage of this fact and train till you drop every day then your chakra capacity will continue to grow everyday too." The boys were wide eyed as they took in the information. "So what I want you to do is to use your jutsu until you are almost out of chakra then go to sleep. Naruto, I want you to go up onto the roof and work on your Zephyr jutsu and try to make it more powerful, just try to make it more of a wind than a zephyr." he said jokingly. "For you Arashi, I want you to go into the Hokage gardens and use your Water Gathering Jutsu to water all of the plants, and then if you still have chakra left I want you to go up on the roof with Naruto and try to get that Katon jutsu of yours to start as fire, just work on getting a chakra spark. You just need to condense the hydrogen in the air and then try to get your chakra to snap like a match head. That should ignite the air and then you can try to control that fire with your chakra. Then it's straight to bed for the both of you, you will be in our guest bedroom. It's down the hall second door on the left." He said with a smile.

"Hai, Oji-san" 'So now both of them are calling me that, oh well it can't be helped' he chuckled. They both said as they raced off to finish their training for the night. Sandime then got a grim look on his face and he used a jutsu and appeared in his office and called for ANBU.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hai, Hokage-sama, you called for me" A young black haired man asked the Hokage.

"Yes, I need an investigation done on the explosion at the Konoha Orphanage that occurred last night. It was set up to try to kill Naruto-kun and indirectly Arashi-kun. Also I need for two apartments to be acquired for said children, try to make it somewhere in between here and the Ichiraku Ramen Store." Sandaime said all of this with a solemn face.

"Hai, Hokage-sama I will get on it right away. I expect that you wish for the apartments to be acquired first. I will be on my way." The man bowed low and prepared to leave.

"Oh one more thing Itachi-san."

"Nani, Hokage-sama?"

"Try to get the rooms close to each other, but not too close if you understand what I'm saying."

"Hai." With that, he vanished with a puff of smoke.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When the boys woke up, they could feel how much their chakra had increased. "Oji-san was right! If we do this every day we are going to be so strong by next year when we can enter the Academy!"

"Yeah, well lets go see if he got us apartments like he told us. I hope its near Ichiraku's" Naruto said while fox grinning like a madman.

"Well lets go see him, come on Naruto-kun." Arashi said as they both ran to go see Sandaime.

"Well good morning boys, you sure must have been tired. Did you have any progress with your jutsu last night?"

"What kind of Shinobi would we be if we gave away our secrets Oji-san? Not very good ones." He said while sticking out his tongue.

Amides hard laughter Sandaime managed to choke out "I guess you're right Naruto, but as Shinobi your Hokage as a right to know." He had them there, so they decided to tell him.

"Well I watered all of the plants and managed to upgrade the jutsu to Suiton: Rain Torrent Jutsu, I can make a lot of water really fast and control where it goes and the force it hits with." He said with a 'Naruto' smile on his face. "Then I turned heat gathering into Katon: Fireball Jutsu, its more of a small stream of fire, but its really hot can burn a lot of things and probably catch a bunch of stuff on fire. I was going to call it Ember Jutsu, but that sounded kinda lame."

"That sounds great, sounds like your almost at a level where you could the Uchiha jutsu of Katon: Great Fireball Jutsu. What about you Naruto?"

"Well I decided that I would work on my Doton jutsu first. After a While I was able to get it to Doton: Iron Fist Jutsu. It's much harder and packs a much more powerful punch than my last one. Then I did work on my Futon jutsu, and managed to advance it a bunch. I made Futon: Great Wind Current Jutsu, I compress air with chakra in my lungs and then shoot it out at great speeds to blow my opponent away. Arashi let me try it on him and it blew him back ten feet when he was running at me."

"That's amazing Naruto, to be able to do a wind element jutsu like that at 6…it's just amazing. Congratulations." He said with a great big smile. "Also I have some good news concerning apartments for the both of you." Their eyes lit up at the mention of their new homes. "ANBU did a good job finding a complex about halfway between here and Ichiraku's, I know you will like that Naruto. Arashi you will be in apartment 3K, while Naruto will be in apartment 4B." He then handed them their key. "You will also be given monthly allowance for you to buy food and cloths and such. But we are going to go out tomorrow and buy you furniture and make the place seem more like a home, does that sound good?"

"That sound great!" Then a wave of guilt rushed over the boys. "Oji-san, I'm sorry but I just feel like you are helping too much, we really appreciate everything your doing. But how are we ever going to repay you?" asked Naruto.

Sandaime smiled because he knew this was coming, the children were too kind to just take and take and take. "I'll tell you what boys, just promise me one thing and we can call it even."

"What is it Oji-san?"

"Promise me that you will try your best to become the best Shinobi you can be, to protect Konoha like it's your family, because after all that is what Konoha is to a Hokage everyone in the village is a part of your family and you must be willing to risk your lives to protect everyone in your family. That was the philosophy of Yondaime Hokage, and I believe that it is the best view of all for a Hokage."

"We promise to protect Konoha with our lives if need be, just like Yondaime-dono!" They both said, then Arashi said. "Demo…but does that mean that you think we could be the next Hokage?"

"You are very sharp Arashi, I do indeed you both possess qualities fitting a Hokage, but the road is not easy it is a long and hard dream to follow, but I believe that both of you could if you really set your mind to it and believe in yourselves and each other." He saw the determination in their eyes and smiled. "But then on the other hand, I might just stay Hokage forever." He laughed hard. "Or someone else might come along, that's why you must strive to be the best everyday. But that doesn't mean that you have to have no life other than training, far from it. You need to have a balanced life, have fun you are still kids. You really should only train maybe 4 days a week until your in the academy next year, don't overwork yourself." With that he left them to eat their breakfast before heading over to their new homes, while he went to get them both a special present.

"Do you really think we could be Hokages Arashi?"

"If Oji-san says so then maybe. It sounds like we were made for the job." Joked Arashi.

Ok, from now on my dream is to become Hokage! That way everyone will stop disrespecting me and they will have to look up to me!" Shouted Naruto standing on the table, while Arashi snickered at how ridiculous his blonde friend looked. Then Sandaime came back in with two wrapped boxes.

"Ok before you go I have something for the both of you."

"Stop spoiling us Oji-san"

"Be quiet Naruto, these will come in handy and will be very beneficial in the future." He opened the box to reveal two sets of wrist bracers and ankle bracers.

"Anou…Oji-san? What are these, armor?"

"No, no Arashi. These are Genjutsu seal bracers invented by Yondaime" Their eyes almost popped at eh mention of his name. "They are a easier way to wear weights to strengthen yourself and work on speed. Instead of having huge weights that you need to buy new ones of when you get to strong for them, you can adjust these with genjutsu so that it takes on the weight you want and it doesn't take up a lot of space. They are perfect training tools. Oh and by the way, these are your birthday presents for the next 2 years." He chuckled as he handed the bracers over to the starry eyes youngsters. He then gave them both a hug and escorted them to their new home. When he was on his way back to the Hokage Tower, he looked back at the apartment building behind him and thought 'You two will grow up very strong, and maybe one of you will become Hokage. I wouldn't put it past you, but first there is the Academy next year, it won't be as easy as you think. Good Luck. Why am I sounding like I won't see those two for a while? I am taking them shopping tomorrow!" He chuckled the entire way back to work. He couldn't wait to see how they would do at the academy.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Wow 1st chapter is finally up, that was a lot longer than I intended for it to be, haha. Well I hope you liked it.

**Yondaime: What the Hell I was barely in this thing, isn't about me? I mean it's the ARASHI Chronicles??**

**Me:**** BAKA!! (Bashes over the head with bucket) not Arashi as in you! The younger one! But you'll be in it more I promise, and Kyuubi will make her appearance.**

**Yondaime: Did you say her??**

**Me: Yeah you got a problem with that?**

**Yondaime: No! No!! (****cowers in fear of my Writer no Jutsu.)**

**Hinata: Anou…r-r-rasenganr-rendan?**

**Me: huh, you want something Hina-chan?**

**Hinata: Is there going to be more of me in the next chapter? I really want to know Arashi-san better. 'he's really cute'**

**Me: Uhhh, Hina-chan you do know that I can hear what you think right?**

**Hinata: Oh no! ummm I d-d-didn't mean a-anything by that.**

**Me: Suuuure you didn't Hina-chan wink wink**

**Hinata: p-please comment, y-you already r-read it w-w-why not c-c-comment?**


	2. The Academy and Tests

**Review reply:**

**Quicksliv**: Well I appreciate your concern, and I agree that naruhina is the best. But Naruto can be an idiot sometimes. My OC is more like an improvement on Naruto, not a completely different character. So keep reading, you might like it who knows.

**Disclaimer:** I do Not own Naruto

**(3 Days before the first day at the Academy)**

'What a beautiful day to do some last minute training! That baka Naruto only wants to sleep this week! He thinks it will give him all the energy he needs for the Academy. That bumbling idiot is sleeping soundly while I'm out here training! That is why I'm going to beat him to become Hokage!' Thought Arashi all the while grinning like a fool as he slammed into the training post yet again. He had been working on his taijutsu for quite a while and he felt satisfied with his progress. "All right, looks like it's time for some shuriken practice." With that he flung 8 shuriken at a nearby tree, 7 of them hit in a perfect line going up the trunk but the last one nicked the side of the tree and shot off into the woods. That is when he heard a quiet gasp come from a bush not 10 feet away from the tree he had been shooting up with shuriken.

"Whoever is out there come, Naruto isn't here so I don't know why you would want anything to do with me!" Said the blue eyed brunette, thinking it was maybe a villager. He was surprised when the bush began to shake, he went over to investigate and when he parted the leaves he found probably the last thing he could think would be in there. "H-Hinata-san? What are you doing here?" He had never forgotten that name or the face that went along with it since he had seen her that one day at Ichiraku's after his training with the Hokage.

She instantly turned a light pink because of her blush. "Anou…h..how d-do you know m-my name Arashi-san?'

"I might ask the same thing. But I saw you at Ichiraku's about a year ago and asked Oji-san who you were. He said that your name was Hinata Hyuuga. So how did you know my name, if you don't mind me asking?"

Her head was swimming, 'How could he remember my name after seeing me once a year ago?' She asked herself. 'No one ever remembers my name unless they are trying to get close to Otou-san, why did Arashi-san remember it?' She then realized what he had asked her and that she had been spacing out. "Gomen Arashi-san, I asked O-O-Otou-san who y-you were that d-day too and he said y-y-you were A-Arashi Himura so I remembered it. Anou..b-but how did you remember m-my name?"

"How could I forget the name of someone so cute?" He said before relalizing what he had said. When he realized, he visibly sucked himself back trying to take the words back as he thought 'BAKA!!! Why would I say something like that? Do I want to scare her off??' He then looked down to see she was about the color of a strawberry. 'She does look really cute like that' "Gomen, Hinata-san I didn't mean to offend you if I did." He said looking very Naruto like while he rubbed his neck.

"N-no it's f-fine, it's j-just that that w-w-was the f-first time anyone other than Otou-san c-caleed me c-c-cute." She said desperately trying to stay conscious.

"Say, Hinata-san why are you hiding over here in the bushes?" With that question she became ever redder if that was possible.

"Anou…Arashi-san I….W-was j-j-just…watching….anou…you train. I didn't mean to be a bother" She said as she hung her head half expecting him to tell her to leave because she was interrupting his training.

"No, you aren't a bother Hinata-san, its just I was wondering if you wanted to train with me instead of possibly getting hit by a shuriken." He said grinning, then he saw a look of awe on Hinata's face. "Is there something wrong, Hinata-san?"

"No, not at a-all, it's just that n-no one has ever asked me to h-help them in training. Are you going to be starting at the Academy soon?"

"Yup, me and my best friend are starting in three days; he's being a lazy baka and sleeping today while I decided to train some. Are you going to be in my class?"

"Yes, I think s-so, w-who is y-your friend?"

"Sweet, I know another person in my class. Oh yeah, his name is Naruto Uzumaki, we really are more like brothers than anything else. We have been together since we were 4 I think."

"What about your parents?" Asked Hinata inquisitively.

Arashi's head dropped a little bit, and a spark of sadness flashed in his eyes, but his face hardly changed at all. "Anou I never knew my parents, they both died the day I was born." He looked over to see tears streaming down Hinata's face.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up painful memories for you. I'm so sorry Arashi-kun." Then it hit her, she had just called him –kun. She immediately leaped back with a scarlet colored face. "Gomen, G-Gomen Arashi-kun." 'I did it again!'

"It's ok Hinata-chan. I don't mind, but would you like to come train with me? Since we are going to be in that same class and all." ' Wait do I just call her –chan? CRAP!'

'He just called me –chan!' She couldn't take it anymore and she promptly fainted right there.

"Hinata-can?" 'Oh great she's unconscious. Guess I'll bring her out of the bushes and wait for her to wait up' He thought as he dragged Hinata into the clearing, and went back to training

About an hour later Hinata slowly opened her eyes right when Arashi had been working on his new Suiton: Water Tornado Jutsu. She looked up to see him glistening with water spinning around him, he looked like a god at that moment with his piercing blue eyes staring off into the forest as he worked on his jutsu. "Beautiful…" It was all she said before she fainted again without Arashi noticing anything.

When Arashi was done with training he simply used a water jutsu to splash a little amount of water on Hinata's face. She awoke rather abruptly with a questioning look on her face. "Looks like you slept well, were you really tired or something? Maybe you should have slept today like Naruto did." He said laughing. "Well I'm done here and I'm going to go home for something to eat, so I guess I'll see you when we get to the Academy."

"That sounds good t-to me A-Arashi-kun."

"Okay, see you soon Hinata-chan, it's nice to make a new friend." He said that and then took off towards his apartment wit a smile on his face. Hinata slowly got up and started to make her way back towards the Hyuuga compound deep in thought on what had transpired on that day. She just couldn't seem to get that picture of Arashi doing his jutsu out of her head.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**(1****st**** day at the Academy)**

Naruto and Arashi both arrived at the Academy for their first day, fully decked out in new cloths. Naruto had a new orange jacket and matching pants (A/N: I'm pretty sure you know what Naruto looks like), and Arashi had a pair of black shin length pants with black ninja sandals, and a black jacket with sections of forest green on it. (A/N: think of Naruto's jacket after time skip, but with forest green instead of orange) They both had a new weapons holster on their right leg and a pair of green goggles on their heads, it had been Naruto's idea to use goggles as a replica of the headbands they would eventually have.

"Here we go Arashi! I can't wait to see who this Iruka-sensai guy is and to see who else is in our class. I hope we can make some friends."

"Well about that, I kinda already made a friend that day you chose to sleep all day instead of going training with me."

"Who is he, what's his name? Do you think he'll be my friend too?" Said the blonde excitedly.

"Well actually HER name is Hinata Hyuuga, and yes I think Hinata-chan would be your friend. I just would advise not pulling any of your damn pranks on her, if you want her to be your friend that is." Arashi said while Naruto looked at him open mouthed. "What?"

"A girl? Really, I wouldn't think that would have made friends with a girl so quick. You always said that they had hidden agendas and stuff like that."

"Hinata-chan is different, she is really nice, caring, and cute…" He tried to stop but it just came out. He new Naruto was going to have a field day with this one.

"Cute?? Hinata-CHAN? Did I just hear you right?" He managed to say while rolling on the ground laughing. After he finally got under control after a punch or three from Arashi he said, "Well whatever, lets get in we don't want to be late…yet. Oh, and introduce me when you see her." With that a giddy Naruto and a very embarrassed Arashi went into the building and found their classroom. They sat down in a row in the middle and to the left of the board. It was a 3 person table and Naruto was on the far end with Arashi in the middle. The two boys talked for a while as they waited for class to start, they didn't even notice when someone in a big coat sat down next to them. The only thing Arashi noticed was that it smelled like lavender all of a sudden, he really likes it.

"A-Arashi-kun" Arashi looked to his right to see that Hinata had taken the other seat in their row, he then realized that the smell must have been from her.

"Oh hey there Hinata-chan, how are you today. Oh by the way this is my friend Naruto." Arashi jabbed Naruto in the ribs to get his attention.

"I am d-doing very good Arashi-kun." She then looked up and saw Naruto, she noted that he had almost the same eyes as Arashi but they weren't as sharp looking and deep as Arashi's. "Good m-morning N-Naruto-kun, are you excited about s-s-starting today?"

"Naruto-kun? I mean you really don't know me that well, we aren't even friends yet." Said the blonde rather bluntly.

"Well any f-friend of Arashi-kun is a friend of mine." She said with a smile that Arashi couldn't help but smile at too. Arashi then felt a tug at his jacket to see Naruto wanting to whisper something to him.

"What is it Naruto?"

"You really think she's all that cute? I mean yeah she is cute but look at that girl with the pink hair or the one with the blonde hair, they are a lot cuter that Hinata-chan." He said very softly.

"Oh well, she is my friend. Or should I say, our friend" The brunette said with a grin. Then the door opened up and a boy their age with jet black hair and eyes watched in wearing a dark blue shirt with white shorts and weird white things on his forearms. "Well that guy sure looks full of himself." Whispered Arashi to Naruto and Hinata, causing them both to snicker to themselves. All of a sudden almost every single girl in the classroom erupted into a frenzy screaming "SASUKE-KUN!!!!" The three friends almost fell out of their chairs from this outburst.

"hm." Was all he said before he went and sat down in the dark corner of the room in the back. With the addition of Sasuke, everyone was here and all the needed to do was wait for this Iruka-sensai guy.

"Good morning class, I hope you all have had a good time so far today." The man with brown hair and a scar across his nose said happily. He made his way over to his desk and sat down. "PBTBTBTBTBT!!!" A whoppi-cushion went off and Naruto exploded in laughter, then so did the class.

"I can't believe that actually worked!!" Yelled Naruto. "Hey, Iruka-sensai. You must not be a very good Shinobi if you can fall for that." All of a sudden a kunai zipped past Naruto, slicing some of his hair off. The blonde fell down into his chair with a terrified look in his eyes.

"As I was saying, I hoped you all have had a fun time so far today, because from here on there will be little fun." He said with a now stern face, and a scowl at Naruto. "This Academy is intended to weed out weaklings and idiots so that only the best are left to become Shinobi. Like our blonde friend here, if he reacted like that after a trap was set off on an enemy, that kunai wouldn't have only cut his hair a little bit." He then switched back into the smile he wore when he entered the room. "Now lets take roll and start the lesson"

"Naruto you BAKA!!" Arashi tried to say as quietly as possible while Iruka was taking roll.

"What? How was I supposed to know he would react like that? It just means that I'm going to have to get his back for that. Let the pranks begin." He said with a little maniacal laugh.

During lunch the three decided to go eat with two guys that were off by themselves just watching the clouds roll by and eating chips. One was obviously an Akamichi and the other one just looked really lazy. "Hey do you guys mind if we eat with you?" Asked Naruto.

"Whatever, just don't make it too troublesome." Answered the lazy looking kid. "Who are you guys anyway?"

"Well my name is Naruto Uzumaki! The next Hokage! A Ninja Legend!" Yelled Naruto, embarrassing Arashi and Hinata to no end.

"Uhhhh, ok. So you're the guy who pranked Iruka-sensai? Oh and I'm Chouji Akamichi, and this is Shikamaru Nara." The lazy kid just raised his hand in a lazy wave.

"Yeah he's the one who did it, I'm Arashi Himura and this is our friend Hinata Hyuuga." With that Hinata gave a very timid wave to the other boys while half hiding behind Arashi.

"The last of the Himuras eh? Well you should be interesting here." Stated Shikamaru. "I just hope you don't act like that Sasuke guy, who does he think he is? He's just too troublesome to deal with."

"Well I don't think you have to worry about that Arashi is a nice guy and he's not a stuck up bastard like Sasuke." Said a grinning fox boy.

"Y-Yes, Arashi-kun i-is…v-v-very nice and k-kindhearted."

"Well it seems like lunch is over, lets go Shikamaru. Don't make me drag you again. Well it was nice meeting you guys, you all are welcome to eat with us whenever you want." Chouji said with a smile as he dragged the Nara to the building by his feet. When they all got back they all went outside for Taijutsu and weaponry practice. Then it was back into the classroom to go over chakra and other things the boys already knew.

Over then next couple months the 5 kids became better friends and studied and played together after school. It was really lucky for Naruto that he had all of these people helping him because school was starting to get hard for him and he needed help with studying. Chouji would gladly help him in exchange for food whenever he came over. When the first year at the Academy was over it turned out that all five of them had passed and were allowed to go on to the next level. Their class of 40 people had been cut down to about 25 people. Then they started doing more advanced studies of chakra usage and control and as well as different helpful jutsu.

"Ok class, today we will be learning the Replacement Jutsu." Said Iruka-sensai. Arashi beamed knowing that he already knows the Jutsu. After the demonstration by Iruka-sensai the class broke off into groups to try to jutsu. Naruto's group consisted of Arashi, Hinata, Chouji, Shikamaru, and a new addition to their group, Kiba.

"So it goes like this?" Naruto did a couple hand signs and then a puff of smoke appeared, when it dissipated they could see a bewildered Naruto holding a mid sized log. They all broke out laughing. "What did I do wrong?" He questioned.

"Watch me Naruto." Said Arashi confidently, he preformed the jutsu perfectly, like he had known how to do it for years. Well he did know how do to it years before. Everyone looked back and there was just a log there and Arashi was in the trees.

"Wow! G-good job A-Arashi-kun. Don't you think so Chouji-kun?

"Yeah that was great, I can't get as far away as Arashi can but at least I can do better than Naruto." He broke out in laughter and Naruto got pissed at the Akamichi boy.

They continued to work on the jutsu the rest of the week and eventually everyone mastered it, Naruto had even figured out how to do it fast enough where he can plant an exploding tag on the log. Iruka-sensai didn't really like that one a lot especially when it blew up in his face.

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**(2 years later)**

It was about 2 months until the graduation exam for them to become genin and the group of 6 had grown to 7 with the addition of Shino Aburame. He really didn't talk that much but when he did you better have been listening. Surprisingly Naruto had continued to pass with the help of his friends. He had just barely passed the year before and was really worried about this years test, the Bunshin Jutsu or Clone Jutsu. He just couldn't get it no matter how hard he tried. He would go home and continue to practice the jutsu hoping he could learn how to do it so he could pass with his friends.

'This is hopeless, I totally suck at this damn jutsu!' Thought the blonde, he was very discouraged so he decided to try to meditate on the subject to clear his mind and to focus on getting the jutsu. He sat down in his bed and closed his eye, cleared everything out of his mind and felt calm. Then all of a sudden he heard a single droplet of water splash on something. He whipped his eyes open to see that he wasn't in his bed let alone his house anymore. He was in a dark wet basement looking corridor, he looked around and saw that there was a very bright red glow coming from somewhere down the hall. He started to walk towards the light but then there was a huge booming voice talking to him.

"**STOP! You mustn't come any closer to me Kit." **Said a very loud, powerful, and feminine voice coming from down the hall.

"Who are you and where am I? I need to get this jutsu right, not get trapped in some nasty hallway!" Yelled the blonde.

"**Well I'll tell you where you are, you are inside the depths of your mind. This jutsu you are talking about, it wouldn't be the Clone Jutsu that you fail horribly at every time now would it?"**

"Wait how do you know about the jutsu?"

"**You aren't the sharpest kunai in the pouch are you Kit? Well since I said that we are in your mind, that would mean that I'm in it too and since we are in your mind I would have access to what you do and your memories. Now would you like form me to tell you why you can't do that jutsu right?"**

"Yes, I would like that very much. I need to know this jutsu…"

"**I know all about it, I'm in YOUR mind you don't need to explain things to me Kit. Well fine, the reason you can't do it is because you have too much chakra and not enough control of it.**

"Really? So what am I going to do then? I need to pass this test!" Yelled the boy.

"**Well tell me this, do you remember what Iruka told you the criteria for the test were?"**

"Yeah, he said that you needed to perform a Bunshin jutsu by the time of the test or you fail, and I don't want that to happen."

"**Okay, so 'a' Bunshin Jutsu, that leaves it pretty open. If he had said 'the' Bunshin Jutsu then you would be pretty much screwed Kit. So I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'll help you out and teach you a high level jutsu that will let you pass the test so you can stay with your wittle fwiends." ** Said the voice very sarcastically.

"Hey don't talk to me like that, your in MY head! So teach me this jutsu lady. Hurry up I don't have all day."

'**Alright, lets get started." ' If he had any idea who he was talking to he would have pissed his pants for talking to me like that'**

"One thing before we start."

"**What?"**

"Who are you and what are you doing in my head?"

"**Well I really don't feel like taking the time to explain it so…just go ask that Hokage of yours. I'm sure its about time he told you about me."** With that the voice then instructed Naruto on the certain jutsu that could help him pass. Naruto awoke the next day with a mastery of the jutsu and went out into the forest to practice it a bit.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"OJI-SAN!!!" Naruto screamed as he shot past the guards and into Sandaime's office.

"Naruto! What on earth could you want?" He asked as he nodded to the guards saying it was alright.

"I have something really important to ask you about."

"No, Naruto I won't take you out for ramen tonight." He said with a smile.

"No not that Oji-san, something big." Sandaime was not interested

"What is it Naruto, you know you can tell me anything."

"Well first off I want to say that you should be proud of me because I'm going to become a genin in a month" He said with a foxy grin. "The other thing is a little more serious. Anou…well I was meditating yesterday and somehow I ended up inside my own mind." Sandaime did not like where he thought this was going. "When I was in there I talked to some lady but it was only her voice and it was really loud. She taught me a jutsu so I can pass the genin test next month, but when I asked her who she was she said to ask you about it. It was really strange, so I was wondering if you know who she is." Asked the blonde 12 year old inquisitively.

Sarutobi sighed heavily. "Well I guess it's about time you know the truth Naruto. Do you have any idea why the villagers hate you so much?"

This was an odd was to answer his question Naruto thought, "No I don't, it must be something big for them to hold a grudge for so long."

"Well it's because of that voice you heard." Naruto cocked his head questioningly. "Do you know what happened on your birthday? Do you know the tale?"

"Of course everyone does. The Yondaime Hokage fought with Kyuubi no Kitsune and eventually sacrificed himself to destroy the fox. He was the greatest ninja ever, I want to be just like him."

"But that isn't the whole truth of the story Naruto." Sandaime said with a frown. He really didn't want to tell the boy, but he had to find out sometime. "The truth is that Yondaime wasn't strong enough to kill Kyuubi, so he did the next best thing. He sealed her into a newborn child…" Naruto's eyes widened. "…He sealed her into you Naruto, and then he died."

"So I have Kyuubi sealed inside of me? That voice was the voice of the Demon who killed so many people and completely destroyed Arashi's clan?" He said with tears welling up in his eyes

"You had nothing to do with it Naruto, you must understand this."

"I know…" He said very quietly. "…But still there has to be something I can do to make up for what happened." With that he grabbed onto Sandaime in a big hug that ended with Naruto falling asleep from all the stress of the discussion.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

**(Genin exams)**

"Hinata Hyuuga, congratulations you pass the exams." Iruka said with a great big smile.

"Yatta!" She basically yelled, which surprised everyone there. She then jumped into Arashi's arms for a big hug. After she realized what she had done she jumped back as red as an apple, tripped over a chair and landed head first into the wall.

'Not again' Thought Iruka. "Could someone please take her to the nurse. Arashi, you already passed could you please do it for me. I need to continue the test."

"Hai, Iruka-sensai." Said the new genin, he picked up his unconscious friend hauled her to the nurse with only one thing on his mind. 'You better pass Naruto!'

By the time he got back it was Naruto's turn. "Good luck Naruto." Arashi stated simply.

"Oh, I don't need luck. This will be a breeze." He said with a huge smile. This threw Arashi for a loop because Naruto was always nervous at exams and he knew Naruto couldn't do a Bunshin right. 'What does he have up his sleeve this time?'

"Okay Naruto whenever you are ready, lets see a Bunshin jutsu." Said Iruka.

"So you want to see 'a' Bunshin Jutsu right?"

"YES Naruto! What part of that did you not understand?" Screamed The scar faced man.

"Here we go!" He said as he gathered his chakra and put his hands into a cross shape. 'That's not the hand signs for the Bunshin Jutsu!' Thought his sensei. "KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!!" Before Iruka's eyes there appeared 10 Narutos all grinning a foxy grin and then said. "See Iruka it's 'a' Bunshin Jutsu, not 'the' Bunshin Jutsu!" He then dispelled his clones and waited for Iruka to turn his normal color again.

"NARUTO!!! How did you do that, those weren't just illusions, those were solid clones! That is a Jonin level jutsu! We it goes without saying that you passed, I mean I can't even do that jutsu. Congratulations Naruto Uzumaki, you are now a genin of Konoha." He said with a still surprised smile. "Well to all of those who didn't pass, good luck next year. Also to all those who passed you are to come here tomorrow at 7 o-clock to be assigned into your groups. Now excuse me I need to go talk to Hokage-sama" With that he poofed away into nothingness.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hokage-sama, we have a problem with the new genin this year." Said Iruka with a distressed look in his eyes.

"What is it Iruka, did Naruto do something again?" The old Hokage asked smirking.

"Well yes and no." This brought a confused look from Sandaime. "Well the thing is I know that there only 3 Jonin sensei available this year."

"Then what's the problem?"

"Well we ended up having ten students pass the test"

"And?"

"What do you mean "and?" they are to be put into 3 man teams and with this number we can't do so correctly."

"Then make one group of four, it has been done before Iruka. Also would I be right to identify the passing Students as Sasuke, Arashi, Saruka, Shikamaru, Shino, Hinata, Ino, Kiba, Chouji, and Naruto?" Iruka looked astonished that the Hokage has correctly guessed not only the students but the order in which they placed grades wise.

"Y-Yes Hokage-sama, those are the ones…but how did you know their placements?"

"Lucky guess!" He chuckled. "But I have already put them into the teams I believe will serve Konoha best. Please make sure that it goes the right way."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" He then disappeared to go over the sheet Sandaime had given him and to contact the Jonin about their new students.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**(The next day at the Academy)**

All the new genin were waiting for Iruka so that they could find out who they were with on their new teams.

"So Naruto who do you want to be with on your team?" Arashi asked already knowing the answer.

"Well of course I want to be on Sakura-chan's team, and also with Sasuke so I can show that teme how great I am!" He said confidently. "What about you Arashi?"

"Well I guess I would have to say me and Hinata….and you"

"Me, why me?

"Well its because you, Hinata, and I are the closest out of our friends and being that close we would have near perfect teamwork, and I know we would get along and we would be happy." He said with a smile.

"Well I know Hinata would just love that match up."

"Why do you say that?"

"It's so obvious it scares me sometimes that you don't see it."

"See what?? SEE WHAT?"

"Nothing Arashi, just forget I said anything at all." He said between giggles. 'He can be so thick headed. I thought I was oblivious about things sometimes!' "Well here comes Iruka, lets see if Hinata's wish comes true" He said to just confuse Arashi more.

"Okay students…I mean genin." Their old sensei said with a smile. "Well the first team I would like to announce is Team 10. It consists of Shikamaru Nara, Chouji Akamichi…."

"Alright we are together Shikamaru!" Yelled Chouji. 'I hope she gets the last spot' He thought as he looked over at eh pretty blonde in front of him.

"As I was saying…the last person on Team 10 is Ino Yamanaka."

"CRAP!!" Yelled the blonde girl. "I wanted to be on Sasuke-kun's team!"

Iruka laughed at the comment. "Well it looks like we have a second generation ino-shika-cho team."

"What do you mean sensei?" All three asked.

"You mean you don't know?" He chuckled. "Well all of your fathers were on the same team when they were young, so it is a second generation team. I guess that's why Hokage-sama picked you three. Oh and by the way your Jonin sensei will be Asuma Sarutobi, the Hokage's son, you should feel honored. He is waiting on the roof for you three, don't keep him waiting. Off you go and good luck." When Team 10 was out of the room he got back to his list. "Okay next it Team 7." He looked over to see Hinata praying for he knew not what. "This team will consist of Hinata Hyuuga, Naruto Uzumaki, and Arashi Himura." At the sound of Arashi's name Hinata fainted, knowing her dream had come true. Iruka just laughed. "Ok we seeing as how Hinata has fainted again, Arashi can you take your team over to room 201, your sensei Kakashi Hatake should be there soon."

"Hai, Iruka-sensei." He picked Hinata's unconscious body up for the umpteenth time. But he couldn't complain, he always thought she looked especially cute when she was out like that, the little amount of blush still on her face. He could never figure out why she would faint but was always more than happy to help her out.

"Okay now that they are gone I will announce that since there is a strange number of genin this year, that the rest of you will be making up Team 8, it will be a special team that can be specialized, so please Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame, all of you wait here your sensei should be here any minute. Her name is Kurenai Yuhi."

"hm" Was all that came out of Sasuke's mouth but inside he was screaming because that annoying pink haired girl was going to be on his team along with the stinky kid and the weird bug kid. Just for an instant he thought that he could have handled being on Naruto's team. Then shuddered for even thinking it. Then all waited for their sensei to show up.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**(Room 201, 2 hours later)**

"Where the HELL is he??" Yelled Naruto, everyone else just shrugged. "Well just because he is late, I'm going to leave hm a little present." He then picked up the eraser from the boards and stuck it in the top of the door. "That will teach him." He snickered.

"Naruto-kun, you really shouldn't do that, it's disrespectful." Said the Hyuuga heiress. It just then that the door opened and a masked man poked his head threw and then had an eraser hit his head and puff out chalk dust.

The man was tall and his headband covering his left eye, he also wore a mask that covered the rest of his face. Just leaving his right eye exposed. He wore a standard Jonin flack jacket with blue pants and shirt, and he has silver hair in almost the exact style as Arashi. He then walked in the room, picked up the eraser and said. "How should I say this…My first impression of you guys are…I hate you." All three members of Team 7 then fell on the floor. They then went up to the room to get more acquainted. "Ok why don't you guys tell me a little bit about yourselves, tell me what you like, what you hate, your dreams, and hobbies."

"Anou…Sensei, why d-don't you tell us about yourself first?" Asked Hinata meekly.

"Me? Well I'm Kakashi Hatake. I have no intentions of telling you my likes or dislikes. As for my dreams…I have a few hobbies."

Naruto glared and then said to the others. "All we really found out was his name, and we already knew that!"

"Ok, lets start with you miss." He pointed at Hinata.

"W-Well my name i-is Hinata H-Hyuuga, I like pressing flowers and helping my friends. I don't like stuck up snobby people. M-My dream for the future…" She looked over at Arashi and blushed deeply. "Anou...my hobbies are training and being with my friends."

"Okay, sounds good, now for you Orange Boy."

Naruto just glared back. "Well my name is Naruto Uzumaki, I like instant ramen in a cup and especially the good ramen Iruka-sensei and Oji-san buy me at the Ichiraku Noodle Shop. I don't like the 3 minutes you have to wait for the water to boil. My hobbies include comparing different flavors of ramen and training with my best friends. My dream is to become Hokage so the everyone will stop disrespecting me and they will have to look UP to me! Either that or I'll support my friend when he becomes Hokage by Heading ANBU, Believe It!" Kakashi just looked on in disbelief.

'Hokage-sama did say that these kids have the potential to become greater than Yondaime. He did say especially the last one.' "Hokage is a lofty dream Naruto, but hopefully with my training you will become closer to your goal. Now for you."

"Well My name is Arashi Himura. I like spending time with my two best friends, training, learning, creating new jutsu or working mine to new levels. I dislike people who insult my friends and people who think the end justifies the means. My dreams are to become the greatest Hokage and to resurrect my clan." He slightly looked over at Hinata thinking no one would notice it but Kakashi did and Hinata just blushed at the thoughts that were running through her head. "But if Naruto is to become Hokage instead of me I want to run ANBU instead." He said with a smile.

'Hmmm, he is caring, compassionate, dedicated, hard working, and mature for his age, honest, and puts others above himself. Those are Hokage qualities indeed, from what Hokage-sama told me about him I wouldn't put Hokage past him. He acts just like you did Sensei.' "Okay then we are going to have our first training session tomorrow, get to training ground at 5 am for the test." He got up to leave when he was stopped by a question from Hinata.

"Anou…what test?"

'Oh how silly of me, I forgot to tell you that if you don't pass this test you get sent back to the academy." He said with what seemed to be a smile under his mask.

"NANI!?!?!" Erupted Naruto. "We did all this work to pass that last test and now you say we have another test?? Well what kind of test is it?"

"Simply it's a survival test, see you guys at 5, oh and one more thing." He then got a very solemn look on his face. "Don't eat breakfast, cuz you'll just puke it up anyway." With that he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"What the hell is he going to do to us tomorrow??" Yelled Naruto.

"Well whatever he is going to do, we need to do it as a team, it's the only way we can get threw whatever he is going to do." Kakashi smiled from behind the pillar he was at. 'Maybe this team can really do something special, lets see how well they do in the test.'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Morning" Said a half asleep Naruto. The other two replied and just waited around. They all really started to get agitated when Kakashi had been 5 hours late. He finally showed up with Naruto and Arashi screaming. "YOU'RE LATE!!!"

"Well I…a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way around."

"Yeah right Kakashi-sensei." Said the pissed off blonde.

"Ok we will start the test." He held up two bells and attached them to his belt. "The object it to take these bells from me, any way you can."

"B-b-but sensei, t-there are only t-two bells."

"Very sharp Hinata. The truth is that only two of you will be staying on…if that. Well…begin!" They all jumped away and hid to come up with a plan.

"A-Arashi-kun, do you really thin he will send one of us back to the a-a-academy?"

"Of course not Hinata, from the looks of it this is a teamwork drill. He wants us to fight amongst ourselves for the bells and see if we can over come our differences to use teamwork to take the bells." The other two nodded, and marveled at Arashi's strategic abilities. "Ok the plan is that we use Naruto and your Shadow Clones to distract him while Hinata and I immobilize him."

"How are you gunna do that?"

"Well Hinata can use her Juuken to immobilize his legs while I can use my Raiton jutsu to paralyze his arms. Then you use one of your clones to snatch the bells and then we win. We tell him that we are going to share the bells so that none of us go back and we beat his little game, simple enough." He said with a smile. "This depends on you Hinata, we need you to get his legs or else he will just run away. I believe in you, you'll be able to do it. Now lets go."

Kakashi was standing in the middle of a clearing when about 15 shuriken slammed into his side, but he was quickly revealed to be a log. Naruto then pounced on the real Kakashi, driving him out of the bushes with about 20 Shadow clones. One of the Clones poofed into Hinata using a Henge, she then landed two juuken blows on Kakashi's quads. He then fell to his knees as Arashi came rushing at him with his Raiton: Static Shock Jutsu and grabbed onto his sensei's arms. They went limp as one of the clones rush din and snagged the bells.

Kakashi was more than surprised, he was amazed. Not only did they all work together, but they used teamwork combinations based on the team's strengths and abilities. "Okay I'm amazed that you got the bells but now for the hard part…who gets singled out?"

The three team mates looked at each other and smiled. "No one does, we decide to share the bells."

Kakashi was flabbergasted, not only had they beaten him but they got around his mind games. 'This team is going to be amazing' After a while he got feeling back in his legs and he got up slowly. "Congrats guys you pass, you are the first team to ever see thru the test to see what it is really about." He said with a smile. "Now I'm going to go home and ice my legs up, but meet at the Hokage Tower tomorrow at 8am for our first mission as Team 7." He left them to celebrate, as he was leaving he looked back to see Hinata jump on Arashi, then turn red and the faint. 'An odd bunch, but it should be interesting.' He snickered as he left to get ready for the day ahead of them.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Alright that chapter was waaay longer than what I thought it was going to be!

**Yondaime: What the Hell! Kyuubi was in it and taught Naruto Kage Bunshin no Jutsu but I wasn't in it at ALL! I was mentioned once!**

**Me: Well how would you like not showing up in the next one too??**

**Yondaime: Gomen, Gomen I want to be in the next one**

**Hinata: Anou…what are Arashi and I going to do together next chapter? I liked the hugging except for the fainting part.**

**Me: Well you just wouldn't be you without the fainting at first. Believe me you'll have some fun next chapter, you get personal training from your precious Ara-kun.**

**Hinata: w-well he isn't "mine"… 'yet'**

**Me: Hina-chan, I can't believe you can't remember that I can hear your thoughts….HEY!! a 12 year old shouldn't be thinking about that!!!!!**

**Hinata: G-Gomen I didn't mean too. Don't tell Otou-san! Please!**

**Me: Oh fine Hina-chan, just because your so cute.**

**Naruto: Hey comment already! I mean this is a story all about me so you know you want to comment! Dattebayo**!

**Me: (covers face with hand) Naruto you can be so stupid sometimes, dattebayo.**


	3. Wave Country

**Review Reply:**

**Jarediz13:** Well Yondaime really hasn't been in the story that much, he will late trust me. Also he didn't want Arashi to teach Naruto the jutsu because it would then invoke questions about where he learned it and Arashi doesn't really know how to explain it.

**quicksliv: ** Well I'm glad that I broke you down into submission, don't worry I plan for him to learn that later. Also Naruto isn't getting 'outclassed' Arashi is just more like Sasuke skill wise, he is just better than Naruto now, Just wait it will get better and more even just like with Sasuke, it's just that Arashi is his friend from the start and a better warmer person.

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Naruto, I'm at point A."

"H-Hinata, p-point B."

"Arashi, point C. We are ready Kakashi-sensei, just give us the word." Each genin said into their communicators as they approached the target.

"Alright everyone move in on my signal….GO!" Then all three jumped out towards the target, Naruto was the one to get a hold of it and pulled it in to make sure he had a good grasp on it. "Can you identify red ribbon on left ear?"

"Confirmed, we got the cat." Arashi said as the cat proceeded to claw Naruto's face to the amusement of Hinata and himself. She only let out a small giggle while he laughed out loud.

"Lost pet Tora, found. Mission accomplished good job team."

"WHEN DO WE GO ON A REAL MISSION!?!?!" Screamed Naruto into the communicator, managing to deafen everyone and knock Kakashi down from the shock of suck a loud noise blasting in his ear.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**(Back at Hokage Tower)**

Team 7 watched in horror as the cat they just found was being smothered by the Feudal Lord's wife. 'No wonder it ran away' thought the brown haired member of the team. The woman then thanked Team 7 and then left them in the room with Iruka and the Hokage.

"So as for your next mission, you may choose between…let's see…babysitting the Chief Councilor's three year old, helping his wife to do the shopping, digging up potatoes…"

"No! NO!! I want to go on a real mission! Something exciting, not this kids stuff!" Naruto yelled at the Hokage. With that outburst Iruka came back with one just as loud.

"How DARE You! You're just a brand new genin with no experience, you need to do these kind of missions just like every one else." Sandaime then motioned for him to sit down.

"Now Naruto I know I have already explained the different kind of missions and how they can range from babysitting to assassinations, and you know that genin do D-rank missions." He said rubbing his head.

"Yeah so what, we are good enough to do better than this kids stuff!"

"I agree Oji-san; I really think we could handle something tougher maybe a C-rank? Please, we have all been working really hard and getting better." Arashi said with confidence. 'Interesting, he is trying to compromise so that everyone comes out of this positively. Very good Arashi."

"So be it, I will give you a C-ranked mission."

"Really? What is it?" Beamed the blonde Shinobi

"You will be bodyguards on a journey, then stay on and protect the man while he finishes his task."

"Cool, we finally get to do something fun!" Said Arashi to everyone's surprise, they had figured Naruto would be the one to yell out.

"Well it's good you are so excited; very well bring in our guest." With a motion to the nearest door it opened. Behind it was a man with grey hair, a piece of rope tied to his head with normal cloths and he was busy drinking a bottle of sake.

"Kids? I'm getting a bunch of kids to protect me life, are they even ninja? Especially the stupid looking blonde one in the orange."

"Hey you hear that Arashi, he said your stupid" Naruto chuckled, and then realized what he had said. "HEY!! I'm gunna Demolish you!" Kakashi then bopped him on the head while holding him back from attacking the man.

"Naruto, you can't demolish the client."

"I am Tazuna Master Bridge builder, we re going to Wave country to finish a bridge. Now hurry up I don't have all day to wait around here."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Team 7 had just left the gates to the village to start the mission when both Naruto and Arashi both started celebrating like mad men.

"Anou…A-Arashi –kun why are y-you and Naruto-kun c-celebrating l-like that?"

"Well you see Hinata-chan, this is our first time out of the village."

"Yeah we are travelers now, dattebayo!"

"You expect me to trust my life to a couple of idiots like that?" Tazuna said in a very complacent voice.

"Well I'm a Jonin and they are with me, you have nothing to worry about. Also they may act uppity sometimes but these are two of the most powerful youngsters we have at Konoha." Kakashi said with a smile seeing that the man didn't believe him. "Just wait you'll see, most likely"

"Yeah, we are going to be Hokage! The name is Naruto Uzumaki…Remember it!" He said with a foxy grin.

"Yeah and we promise to protect you and get you safely to your bridge, I give you my word." Smiled Arashi. After the little discussion they were off to Wave country. After about two hours of walking and the kids talking among themselves they passed a puddle that Kakashi eyed suspiciously then chuckled. Just as they passed the puddle two figures dressed in black capes, breathing masks, and strange claw devices. They leapt up and caught Kakashi in a spiked chain that connected the two. They then pulled the chains ripping Kakashi into several lifeless chunks.

"Sensei!!" They all screamed, and leapt into battle.

"Naruto! Defensive position B! Hinata, go to offensive position C, I have A" Yelled Arashi as the two nodded their head. Naruto ran over to Tazuna and made 5 Shadow Clones to encircle the man while the other two charged at the two ninja who had apparently killed their sensei. While they were busy fighting Naruto took the opportunity to catch their chains with his shuriken and stick it to a tree, immobilizing them. Hinata quickly got behind one of the men and gave him a swift juuken poke to the neck, knocking him out. Arashi was battering the man's face until he dodged one of his blows and sped towards Naruto and Tazuna, 'They must be after Tazuna-san. But this is a C-rank mission there should be no ninja after him. Maybe bandits but not ninja' Arashi went after him in full speed to try to get there and stop him from plowing into Naruto and Tazuna. But just as the man was about to strike Naruto, He was viciously caught by the next, effectively knocking him out, by their supposedly dead sensei. Confused the three looked over where his 'body' was supposed to be to find a shredded log in its place.

"Very good you guys, you kept your cool and effectively took out enemy ninja who from what it looked like were at lease Chunin level. Especially you Hinata, very good job. But Naruto, you froze up a little when you could have bashed that one coming at you after he got past Arashi." He said with a smile.

"Yeah you did great Hinata-chan. You took him down in one hit!" Shouted an overjoyed Arashi. She blushed slightly at the compliment.

'Y-You did w-well too Arashi-kun, y-you too Naruto-kun." She stammered out.

Kakashi then tied up the two ninja and walked towards Tazuna. "We need to talk about this" He said very calm a quietly. "You never said that there were enemy ninja after you, this easily makes this a B-rank maybe an A-rank mission. Why did you lie to us?" The silver haired Jonin asked furiously.

"Well you see the thing is that a C-rank is all that my country could afford. I have my reasons." He then went into detail about Gato and the strife in Wave country. "So that's why I had to lie to you, we can't afford a proper mission fee, my bridge is the hope of our country."

"B-But we-we're only genin, t-this is too advanced for our l-level of t-training. I-I think w-we should g-go back and g-get an appropriate t-team to h-help you Tazuna-san." She said while poking her fingers together in a way that screamed cuteness to Arashi.

"No." Everyone snapped around to see Arashi standing and looking down the road. "I promised that we would get him to Wave country and his bridge, and I never go back on my word. That is my nindo, my ninja way so I say we keep on going with the mission. I believe in our team and think that we can do it. I promised that we would protect you and that is what I intend on doing." He said very seriously, Hinata couldn't stop staring with admiration. 'From now on that will be my nindo too.' She thought looking at her team mate.

"Yeah, we can do this Kakashi-sensei, we won't back down." Naruto said with a smile.

"Are you really going to help me without going back to the village?" Asked the bridge builder.

"Well it's up to the kids now, it's their mission after all. How about you Hinata, do you feel up to it?"

"H-Hai, Kakashi-sensei" She said after a quick head nod. With that they continued their journey but with a more careful watch now.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Deep within a forest hideout a short white-haired man was yelling at a large ninja sitting on a couch with a gigantic sword strapped to his back.

"Your men failed me! I put out big bucks for you guys, now they are going to be on the lookout for enemies. You just cost me a lot of money with your failure." The large ninja then took out his sword and held it at the short man's throat from about 7 feet away.

"Then I'll do it personally" Said the large man.

"Anyway they said a high level ninja is protecting Tazuna, so it's going to take someone with a lot of skill to take him out."

The large man started laughing "Who do you think I am? I am Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Hidden Mist!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They were no on a boat that was heading for Wave country and Kakashi, Tazuna, and Arashi had all fallen asleep leaving Naruto and Hinata to talk some. They talked about random things for a while, well it was really just Naruto talking and Hinata listening. Then he decided to bring up something she hadn't though he would.

"So…Hinata-chan. When are you going to tell him?" She instantly went ridged and blushed.

"Tell who what?" She said trying to play stupid.

"Come on Hinata-chan, I know you know what I'm talking about. Also I'm not as stupid as others might think. So when are you going to tell him how you feel?" She started to get redder and redder.

"Anou…I-I don't k-k-know Naruto-kun. I mean…w-what if…I j-just c-c-couldn't…" She just kept getting red then it hit her. "Oh Naruto-kun please don't tell him." She begged him, but he was more astonished that she didn't stutter at all when she said it. Then he smiled.

"Don't worry Hinata-chan, I wouldn't do that to one of my friends. Plus it's funnier to see you get all nervous when he is close and all."

"Anou….Naruto-kun…"

"What, do you want to ask me something?"

"Anou…h-has A-Arashi-kun e-ever… d-does he t-tell…d-do you think h-h…" Despite the fact she couldn't get her question out Naruto figured it out.

"Actually despite his confident front and all, he is just as shy as you about girls for the most part. He can just control his nervousness better than you can. For about the first 3 months or so that we knew each other he was pretty shy with me if you can believe it." Hinata couldn't believe it, they were like brothers and the thought of Arashi acting shy was just too cute for her mind to handle at the moment and she almost fainted. "But to answer your question, no he tends to keep that kind of stuff to himself, he's no good at confessing things. He is always wondering 'what if' questions, kinda what I think you do sometimes."

"Thank y-you Naruto-kun"

"Don't mention it, but we should get some sleep." With that they both sat back and fell asleep, but they didn't notice that Kakashi's eye had been open the whole time. 'Hmm, looks like I was right about her. This should get interesting' He thought with a smile before going back to sleep.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They had finally landed and were walking down the path towards where they were going, when all of a sudden Kakashi yelled for them to get down. As soon as they did, a giant sword swooped over their heads and got stuck in a nearby tree. Then a large ninja with camo leggings and arm thingies, no shirt, light purple pants, bandages that covered his mouth and nose like Kakashi's mask, and no eyebrows. He also had a headband sideways on his head from the Hidden Mist village.

"Well, Well if it isn't Zabuza Momochi rouge ninja of the village hidden in the Mist." Naruto then ran forward determined to take the guy down, but Kakashi simple put his hand in front of him. "You're in the way Naruto, this guy isn't like those other ninja. He is at a Jonin level he would destroy you in an instant. So if he's our opponent then I'll need this…" He reached up to pull his headband up from covering his left eye, everyone looked on not knowing what he hid under there." …This could get treacherous"

"Kakashi of the Sharingan Eye, did I get that right?"

'Sharingan? What's that, something really cool I bet' Thought the blonde. 'How could he have the Sharingan? He said his name was Hatake, he's not an Uchiha.' Thought the Hyuuga, while Arashi was just as confused as Naruto.

"Quickly, Manji formation, protect Tazuna, and stay out of this fight!" Kakashi ordered his team, as he lifted his head band to reveal a closed eye with a big scar going down over his eye. He then opened it to show a red eye with a pupil and three comma shaped seperate pupils circling the middle pupil.

"SO I get to see the Sharingan in action, this is an honor." Stated Zabuza coldly.

"H-how can h-he have the Sharingan? I-It doesn't m-make sense."

"What is the Sharingan Hinata-chan?" Asked her blonde team mate.

"The S-Sharingan is a rare K-Kekkei Genkai found e-e-exclusively to the Uchiha clan, it is a-a-a Dōjutsu that c-can immediately s-see and anticipate all ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu at h-hand." Everyone in the group was amazed at the knowledge she showed.

"You got it right girl, but you only scratched the surface of the Sharingan, it also has the ability to breakdown an opponent's technique and then copy it to the smallest detail." Then all of a sudden a thick mist rolled in covering Zabuza's location. Kakashi saw something in the mist and stepped forward, out walked Zabuza prepared to do battle. "As for you Kakashi, back in the Mist village we had a standing order to destroy you on sight. You were in our Bingo Book known as Kakashi of the Sharingan Eye, the man who copied over 1000 jutsu." ' Is Kakashi-sensei really that famous a ninja?' thought the young Hyuuga. "Enough talking I need to eliminate the old man, Now!" The genin ran over to Tazuna and set up a defensive stance. "So I'm going to have to go through you first, eh Kakashi? So be it."

He jumped forward only to find Kakashi crouched in front of him with a kunai to his stomach. "This ends now." He then shoved the kunai into his exposed stomach, but instead of blood it was water. "A Mizu Bunshin!" When the Zabuza in front of him turned to water, Zabuza appeared behind him and sliced the Jonin in half, only for it to also turn to water. 'A Water Clone, but how?' He then found Kakashi behind him with his kunai to his throat. "Now it's over" Kakashi said in a cold and chilling voice.

"You don't get it Kakashi, I will never be beaten by a mere copy of my own jutsu." Suddenly the Zabuza in front of Kakashi turned to water as yet another Zabuza came up from behind, he barely ducked the sword but was then kicked into the air when Zabuza rotated on his sword. Kakashi flew into the water next to them, then Zabuza dove in with him.

When Kakashi surfaced he realized that there was something wrong with the water he was in, it was too thick. The rouge ninja ran above him and did a few hand signs and said. "Water Prison Jutsu!"

"NO!" But it was too late, Kakashi had been caught.

"Now I'll kill those brats." He then made two Water Clones, who calmly walked over to the genin with killer intent radiating from him.

"Ok, I think I have a plan guys." Naruto and Hinata gathered close, making Hinata blush slightly. "Hinata these are only water clones do you think you can take one out with the shadow clone combo?" She nodded and Naruto agreed that they could do it, and that he could handle the other one. "Okay then that leaves getting Kakashi-sensei out to me." He snickered and then explained. "I guess I get to try out my new jutsu." He said smiling. The others knew what he was talking about, they had been there when he perfected it.

"Ok lets go Hinata-chan." Naruto put his hands up to the familiar seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" 12 Narutos appeared, only 19 of them were actually shadow clones, the other one was Hinata in Henge. They split up into two groups and attacked the Zabuzas. 5 were instantly swept out of existence by his sword, then 4 of the remaining ones grabbed onto each limb and held him down, Hinata released the Henge to the surprise of Zabuza and hit the clone's heart with a juuken strike effectively killing it. The other clone was a different story, shadow clones were getting destroyed left and right, so the rest of them from Hinata's group charged him as well. That was the moment Arashi needed, he zipped by the clones while doing the required hand seals for his new jutsu. He stopped about 10 feet in front of Zabuza and raised his arm with a finger pointing at Zabuza, then he shouted out. "Raiton: Lighting Shot Jutsu!!" Then a bright blue lightning bolt shot out of Arashi's finger and lanced towards Zabuza, just as it was about to pierce him he jumped away, leaving Kakashi free and a slight burn mark on his right shoulder.

"You little BRAT!" Screamed the enraged Mist ninja. He then had to dodge several shuriken coming his way. He landed on top of the water and looked over to see Kakashi standing in front of him.

"Did you forget about me Zabuza?" Asked the copy-nin as he started to copy Zabuza's hand seals perfectly. When he was finished both of the yelled out "Suiton: Water Dragon Jutsu!" At the exact same time, this confused Zabuza who then went into another lengthy hand sign sequence. 'Can he read my thoughts, there is no way he could react that fast, it was at the same time as mine! Can he see the future?' "Yes Zabuza, I can!" With that little phrase, Zabuza faltered and Kakashi activated the jutsu, a Suiton: Great Waterfall Jutsu, sweeping Zabuza into the nearby forest. When the water died down he was sitting against a tree, looked up to see Kakashi staring at him with the Sharingan.

"Can you really see the future?" He asked coldly.

"Yes I can, and your future is death!" Then suddenly two senbon struck Zabuza in the neck as he fell down dead. Kakashi looked up to see a young hunter-nin from the Mist village.

"I apologize for taking away the pleasure of killing him, but I must take the corpse back to the village, I'm sure you understand." Said a voice that sounded younger than Naruto but it was cold and emotionless

The three genin and Tazuna ran over just as the hunter-nin was about to leave. "Who is that?? He killed Zabuza, just like that??"

"Calm down Naruto, this is a hunter-nin from the Mist village, they are supposed to track down rouge ninja and eliminate them, and he is just doing his job." With that he disappeared with the body. The Kakashi suddenly fell down, saying "Uh…I used to much chakra."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

They finally got to Tazuna's house carrying Kakashi, then put him down to rest in a bed while they went to have something to eat. While the silver haired man lay there, something was bothering him. 'what was up with that hunter-nin, they normally dispose of the body on site, and also he was much smaller than Zabuza he couldn't have taken him far.' Then it hit him. "Zabuza is alive! I better get those guys training, I would bet my left eye that they are going to be back."

Then next morning every one on Team 7 went out to the forest behind Tazuna's house to train. When they got to the forest Arashi and Naruto had an idea of what he was going to have them do. "Okay you all did very well out there against Zabuza, personally I was amazed at how well you did. Even though it was only a clone they were supposed to be well above your level. So we are going to do a chakra control exercise today. You will be climbing trees…" He paused waiting for Naruto to explode wondering how one was supposed to do that, only to see a disappointed look on the boy's fasces. "…Without your hands."

"Anou…h-how do w-we do that sensei?"

"Well just watch." He proceeded to do pretty much the exact the Sandaime had done with the two boys years ago, except Sandaime was just old while Kakashi was in crutches. "I want you to be able to do this like this." He threw them kunai to use just like Sandaime had and then he left. 'Let's see how they do' He thought as he hid in a tree close but not too close.

"Hey Naruto." Arashi whispered, and Naruto came over to see what was up. "Lets do something so that Hinata doesn't feel bad for not knowing how to do this already. I don't want her to feel left behind."

"Sure, like that's the only reason. But yeah I agree, we could combine the leaf spin and tree walking together, it will make it harder and better for us to train with."

"Great idea, lets do it." They then went over and placed a leaf of their foreheads. Kakashi noticed this and realized what they were doing. 'So they already know tree walking, interesting, very interesting.' They started running at the trees after gathering the needed chakra, Naruto got about 10 feet up before he came crashing down falling flat on his face. Arashi got about 20 feet up before doing the same thing excluding the face plant, while Hinata surprised them and got about 25 feet up before gracefully coming back down. Naruto looked like he was feed up with the double training when Arashi shot him a cold look that said 'you better keep doing it like this' Naruto reluctantly accepted.

They continued training all day and Arashi had succeeded in reaching the top of the tree while Naruto was about 50 feet up and Hinata was stuck at 40 feet. Arashi could see the disappointment in her eyes, so he shot Naruto a look and he knew what to do. "Well I'm tired I'm gunna go bad in and get some sleep." Hinata slightly blushed at the idea of being alone with Arashi.

"B-But Naruto-kun."

"Don't worry about it Hinata-chan, I'll see you later." He then made his way back to the house and happily had his fill of ramen.

"Anou…Arashi-kun y-you seem to be r-really good at t-this, could you h-help me out?"

"Sure, lets see you try to get up it again." She did and got to her normal 40 feet, hoped down. She then looked at where she had gotten and realized that she didn't go up any.

She suddenly started crying heavily as all the memories of her father telling her how useless she was and how she was a burden to everyone around her. She felt terrible, like she was holding back the team and that she was worthless. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts of failure that she didn't even notice that she had been pulled into a tight embrace by Arashi. When she did she instantly reddened but enjoyed the warmth radiating from him.

"Why are you crying Hinata-chan? You didn't do anything wrong." He lifter he head up as to make eye contact, then she latched onto him tightly and sobbed even harder. "You can tell me what's wrong, you can tell me anything. Trust me."

She looked up into his deep blue eyes and saw the compassion and the care that was being given to her and she felt a little better. "Anou…Arashi-kun…a-am I u-useless?"

"Nani?? Of course not Hinata-chan your great, now what kind of bastard would tell a great person like you that you were useless?" She swallowed hard, sniffling.

"M-My f-f-father. He is a-always telling m-me that I am w-worthless, u-useless, a b-burden o-on others, and a d-disgrace t-to the clan." She stammered out between sobs. She looked up again to see anger in Arashi's eyes, mixed with concern and care.

"How could he say that to his own daughter!? Hinata-chan I'll tell you what you are and you are not any of those things. You're a sweet caring person, who helps out with anything someone asks of you, you try your best and work harder than most of the people I know to show people that your not weak. Your strong Hinata-chan, I see it in your eyes. Also I'm not the only one who sees it, Naruto sees it, Kakashi-sensei, and Oji-san see it too. I'm sure that your father will too someday when he pulls his head out of his ass!" He hugged her tighter and said. "Also your on our team, that means that you're the best, because team 7 is the best!"

He looked down to see her as red as a tomato, she was still crying but she knew they were tears of joy. She had never been complimented like that before, he had laid out everything that he saw in her and said others saw it too. She was so happy that she was fully accepted, she pulled herself tight into his chest and finished crying. 'I know now that I don't just have a crush on you Arashi-kun, I know now that I love you. But how will I tell you, and when? What if you don't feel the same? I'll have to talk to Naruto-kun about this' "Thank you so much Arashi-kun, do you think we can try again tomorrow? I'm pretty tired." She looked up to see sheer shock on his face. "What?"

"Y-You didn't stutter!" Her eyes widened at the realization that she didn't.

"Well I fell a lot b-better, and I kind of figured out something." She instantly retracted knowing full well what she had said, and blushed a shade that Arashi hadn't seen yet.

"What did you figure out Hinata-chan?"

"Anou…w-well y-you see…i-it's s-sort of l-like…"

"Never mind, Hinata-chan. I just don't want to see you cry, it makes me sad too." She snapped up at that comment, looking deep in his eyes she saw the caring in them and secretly wished that one day she would be his.

'I wish we could stay like this all night…what? Where did that come from? Whatever, it is getting late though we should get back, I'll teach her more tomorrow.' "Okay well I guess we should be getting back, don't want to worry the others." He said as he stood up and let go of Hinata. He then felt very cold without her warmth on him and wanted it back. 'What is wrong with me?' They then went back to the house for dinner.

Kakashi then jumped down from the tree he had been reading in. He was smiling to himself while thinking 'Well looks like it finally happened, she crossed that line. I wonder how long it will take him to realize it. But we'll worry about that after the mission, I need to get back before them so they don't suspect anything.' With that he disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared back in his bed. He looked around to see Naruto waiting for him. 'Crap.'

"So anything interesting happen out there or were you just reading your perverted book sensei?" Kakashi sighed not wanting to tell Naruto but he now had blackmail material to make the others turn against him.

"Fine Naruto I'll tell you, Arashi helped her train. Then she felt bad, and Arashi helped her feel better."

"I know that's not all you saw." Said Naruto angrily.

"Yeah that is all I saw, but anyway I'm sure Hinata is going to come talk to you about it some. Don't worry but we need to focus on the mission." Naruto nodded. "Oh one more thing Naruto, why didn't you tell me you already knew how to climb trees?"

Naruto was trapped, so he just started laughing and rubbed his neck. "Well Oji-san taught us when we were 6." He then darted out of the room to greet the two returning members of his team.

They continued working on the tree walking for the rest of the week, eventually they all got it. Arashi and Naruto even got all the way to the top of the tree while spinning leaves on their foreheads and in both of their hands. Kakashi was very interested in the fact they chose their hands to spin it in. Hinata also got to the top with nothing, and then worked on it so that she could do it with the leaf on her forehead. She had been more dedicated and determined ever since she had her talk with Arashi. She also couldn't keep that thought of them sharing that embrace out of her head, little did she know that neither could Arashi.

'Why can't I get Hinata out of my head? It's not enough to distract me from what I'm doing but it's there none the less. Like a part of my mind is thinking of her always.'

"**It's because you are."** The voice really startled Arashi and caused him to fall off the tree he was sitting on. He managed to catch himself on the trunk just before slamming into the ground, but just barely.

"What the hell?"

"**You don't remember me? The one who taught you the replacement jutsu all those years ago."** Then Arashi remembered about the voice and how it had said that it was a part of Arashi's mind.

"Who are you, what the hell is going on?"

"**You don't have to say it out loud, I can hear your thoughts. As for who I am, I'm not going to tell you exactly yet. But I can tell you that you will be surprised when you find out. I promise you I'm not bad, I want to help you whenever I can. My power is your power. I just wanted to tell you that you should crank up your bracer's weight it will really help you with your power and speed. Tell Naruto the same thing, also you should start up your chakra reserve training again and work on your speed its one of the things your lacking."**

'Uhh, ok I understand what you want me to do and all, it's good advice but I don't know who the hell you are! Is there anything I can call you?'

Yondaime chuckled to himself. **"Yeah, you just call me Arashi-san."** He said with a big Uzumaki grin.

'Well that really doesn't help but whatever, I need to get back to training the others probably think I've gone crazy or something.' With that Arashi broke contact and went over to the corner of the cell that held him and sat down in the chair he had thought up

'**I'm so proud of you Arashi, not only have you saved my son from the darkness of loneliness for the most part of his life. But you have been a great friend and basically a brother to him. When you realize who I am, I'll have to tell you everything and let you in a couple family secrets. Whatever happens, I hope that you open that thing up soon enough. It will really help you out in everything you do.' ** Yondaime thought looking at the gigantic chest on the other side of his cage. It was a great golden chest that only had two words inscribed on it… 'Kekkei Genkai' **'If you activate it you'll be the first one to in three generations of the Himura. Good luck, I can sense that your getting close to it.'** With that Yondaime fell asleep in his chair as Arashi trained.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hey Arashi, what happened you spaced out for a while." Asked his blonde friend.

"I was just…thinking, yeah. Oh yeah. Naruto, do you have your bracers on?"

"Of course I always have them on, why?"

"Because we are cranking up the weight."

"Really, how much we already have 50 pounds per limb!"

"We are going up to 80."

"80!! Are you crazy, do you have any idea how hard it is going to be to do this exercise?"

"That's the point baka! Plus it will help out with our chakra capacity drills."

"We are starting those again! You know I hate doing that."

"Yeah whatever, just crank up the bracers." They both did some hand seals and then said "Bracer jutsu: 80! Kai!" They instantly felt the difference in weight.

"Anou… w-what are y-you talking about Arashi-kun, and w-what are t-those things?" Asked their team mate in wonder.

"Well you see Hinata-chan these are genjutsu bracers that emulate weights so we don't have to actually lug around huge weights. They were birthday presents to us form Hokage-Oji-san. They were invented by Yondaime and these are the only two sets in the world." She sat in wonder at something that had been made by the great Yondaime Hokage.

"B-But what a-about chakra c-capacity drills?"

"Well Oji-san taught us that if we used almost all of our chakra before we went to sleep that our chakra capacity would steadily grow as we continued to use up chakra each day. We used to do it but the more chakra you have the harder it is to work off, so we kinda took a break from doing it, be we need to get started doing it again."

"W-Why?" A Simple question but Arashi didn't know how to answer.

"Well…I guess it's just I think that it will help and because we now have ways of burning more chakra faster. Naruto has his Shadow clones, and I now have the Lightning Shot. Actually Hinata I think that it would really benefit you too. Would you want to do it with us?"

"Hai, b-but what could I do? I don't have any jutsu like the ones you have."

"Well you could help Naruto while working on your taijutsu, he could makes shadow clones that would spar with you and you could work on your juuken with out worrying about hurting Naruto because they would be clones."

"T-That s-s-sounds like a v-very good p-plan Arashi-kun."

"Yeah and plus you have this tree climbing thing down easy. See I told you that you would get it, you even got it with the leaf." He smiled at her then spoke to both of them. "Okay then lets get to work."

They went to their respective areas and worked on their drills. Naruto was meditating while consistently making shadow clones to battle Hinata. She was in an all out war with about 40 Naruto clones, and she was giving it her all. Destroying the clones left and right with precise juuken blows, and as soon as she destroyed one Naruto would make another one giving her and endless supply of opponents. She was getting tired and fast, so Naruto noted that maybe she should work on evasion skills and fine tuning he Byakugan. They then worked on that for a while with only three clones fighting Hinata while the rest had a battle royal with each other. They continued for a while until both of them were exhausted, so they decided to go over and watch Arashi.

The whole time, Arashi had been working on his Lightning Shot Jutsu, perfecting his aim and distance he could cover. When every tree around him had a 2 inch hole in the trunk he decided to up the jutsu again. The worked and worked until he finally got it. That was when the others came over. "Hey guys check this out, I upgraded the Lightning Shot!" He preformed the jutsu and the other's surprise not only was the shot deadly accurate and blindingly fast, it wasn't a bolt that arced at the target anymore. It was straight more like a laser that a lightning bolt. "Well what do you think, it'd now Raiton: Lightning Laser Jutsu. But the really cool thing is that I can do this…" He redid the jutsu but instead of extending his finger, her left it in a fist, then all of a sudden a gigantic blast of lightning shot out. Still in its laser form but instead of the size of his finger, it was the size of his fist. There was a 6 inch hole burned through several trees lined up in a row. "I found out how to manipulate how big the blast can be." He said with a grin.

"That's amazing Arashi-kun!" Said Hinata, in a rare non-stutter moment. Then Arashi collapsed from the lack of chakra. "Arashi-kun!" But he was already asleep, so they decided that they didn't want for all three of them to be stuck out there because they were exhausted and headed back to the house for some sleep.

Kakashi once again was sitting in his tree watching them while reading. 'Very good plan for training Arashi, and also I'm impressed with your new jutsu. Hinata is coming along very well and is starting to master the juuken, I'm yet to see any of the 8 trigrams moves but I'm sure Hiashi hasn't taught her those yet. Naruto is also coming along great, he was able to create around 2000 over the coarse of the day, I couldn't even do that! He and Arashi have such crazy chakra stores, I can understand Naruto would have it because of Kyuubi. But I can't figure out why Arashi would, he truly is an interesting boy.' He then jumped down from his tree to help them carry Arashi and Hinata who had just fainted because Naruto had her carry him for a little bit. When he picked up Arashi he was surprised at how much he weighted. "Dear Kami, why is this boy so heavy? I didn't give him any training weights."

"Well you see Kakashi-sensei, Oji-san gave us these arm and leg bracers for out 6th, and 7th birthdays. He said that they were invented by Yondaime, they are really cool. A lot better than training weights." The boy smiled. Still in a state of shock that Sandaime would give them his sensei's genjutsu bracers, they calmly walked to the house and got ready for the next day. Kakashi had a bad feeling about it.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They had completed their training for the week and had gone to accompany Tazuna to the bridge to help finish. They were almost done, only about 50 more feet of bridge to complete. Naruto had stayed back at the house to protect Tazuna's family. But when they got there they were surprised to see Zabuza and the hunter-nin waiting for them.

"Well it looks like my prediction on your whereabouts was correct, also my theory on that 'hunter-nin" Said Kakashi drawing his kunai.

"Sorry to keep you waiting Kakashi. I see you brought those brats along again, I think I'll let Haku here take care of you guys." He then motioned to the boy next to him. "Go ahead Haku take down that boy first." He then jumped in between the two groups and took out two senbon.

Arashi smirked and leapt towards the boy, crashing down on him with a kunai only to have it blocked by one of the senbon. They continued battling with taijutsu for a while until Arashi managed to hold him up and keep one hand busy. "Now you can't do any jutsu."

"Really?" Haku smirked, as he flashed hand signs with one hand. "Time to end this, you can't escape. Thousand Ice Needles of Death!" He stomped his foot into the water covered ground and the water shot up into hundreds of ice needles that then shot at Arashi. When they could see what happened they only saw the ice stuck in the bridge with Arashi out of the way smiling. Then rushed in and gave Haku a swift kick to the face, knocking him back to Zabuza.

"He's fast, I'll give him that, but no one is faster than Haku."

"H-He's s-so fast K-Kakashi-sensei." The Hyuuga said with a smile.

"Haku, use the jutsu! Take him out, I'll handle Kakashi." Haku nodded and did a couple hand signs.

"Crystal Ice Mirror Jutsu!" Then several mirrors surrounded Arashi, trapping him inside, while Haku seemed to step into the mirror, and several senbon shot out at him from multiple angles.

"What the hell, where did he go?" Said the young Himura as he dodged needles at every step. Then he saw the quick flash jumping from mirror to mirror. He knew he had to focus on the flash to adjust his eyes, but there was a funny feeling growing in his mind.

Meanwhile outside the mirrors Kakashi rushed in to help Arashi, but Zabuza appeared in front of him. "If you enter this Fight Kakashi, you fight me! That brat has no chance of defeating that jutsu. He is finished."

'Damn it's taking all my speed to just dodge these senbon. I can't put up a counter attack, it's a good thing I deactivated my bracers this morning. Otherwise I would most likely be dead right now. But I am starting to see his movements more clearly now.' Then all of a sudden a shuriken came slicing into the ice prison and managed to nail Haku square in the mask, chipping it a bit.

"Did you guys miss me?" Yelled the blonde boy who had just showed up. Kakashi just slapped his face and thought 'Naruto you baka, you could have been more help if you stayed hidden.'

"What took you so long Naruto, I expected you to be here 20 minutes ago." Yelled back a frustrated Arashi.

"Well you see a couple samurai flunkies attacked Irari and his mom so I had to save them, and I had to finally set that shrimp straight about courage and heroes. He was really getting on my nerves!" He then disappeared and appeared next to Arashi, then whispered. "So what did I miss?"

"BAKA!! Now your trapped in here with me!" With that the senbon started flying again, and they started dodging. But the feeling in Arashi's mind kept growing more and more. "Naruto try to have your shadow clones make a run to the outside." He nodded and created 10 clones, they all rushed to the exit all going in opposite directions. But they were quickly taken care of by Haku's senbon. 'I can see his movements now, I can hit him if I only had a defense.' Then it hit him, and the started to do hand signs. "Suiton: Water Tornado Jutsu" Water began to spin around the two Konoha ninja as the incoming senbon reflected off the wall of water. They began to use the jutsu as a defensive wall, while they came up with a plan.

Guarding Tazuna but was also watching the two fights that were going on. Kakashi and Zabuza were having more of a hide and seek battle in the newly formed mist. Normal people couldn't see what was going on but she had her Byakugan, the two Jonin were really only avoiding each other. Zabuza had gotten a couple hits in and gotten some of Kakashi's blood on him. But she was more interested in what was going on inside the ice prison. She saw that Arashi had constructed a defense to stop the senbon and was talking with Naruto. All of a sudden Naruto clones shot towards the exits, only to be taken down in an instant.

"Do it again, Naruto I think I can get him this time."

"You better, this is starting to hurt like crap!"

Another wave of Naruto clones dashed out of the water tornado to be taken down but this time Arashi was ready, he quickly fired off a Lightning Laser Jutsu and managed to hit Haku in his left shoulder. He had done it, he had hit him and caught up to his speed.

As Hinata was watching the success of what just happened she noticed that Arashi's chakra signature simply pulsated at one instant. Arashi felt this as a click that sounded like it opened some kind of chest in his mind. His eyes instantly turned from the deep blue that Hinata had fallen in love with, to a sharp silver color. Suddenly his water tornado started to freeze up. 'Haku must have gotten to it, also I'm almost out of chakra, what is this new feeling? It feels like I'm absorbing something.' Then the wall of ice shattered and a single senbon shot through and struck Arashi straight through the chest, just about where his heart was. He instantly went limp and fell to the ground.

"ARASHI!!" Hinata and Naruto screamed!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kakashi had just managed to capture Zabuza with his Summoning Doton: Tracking Fang Jutsu when he heard the others scream for Arashi. All he heard was Zabuza starting to laugh. "Looks like Haku finally got to the brat, one down two to go." Kakashi turned to give Zabuza a look of death.

"Your life ends today Zabuza!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto was over holding Arashi's limp body, as he then saw his best friend's eyes shift back to their normal blue. "N-Naruto, g-get h-h-him." Was all he said before everything went dark, then he saw a yellow light flash and slightly cover his body, pushing the senbon out. But Naruto was to far into his rage to notice this, he was seething and a strange deep red chakra was seeping out of him, swirling around the friends.

Haku was genually afraid of what he saw, this chakra was not only visible but it dripped with bloodlust. He looked down to see Naruto in a rage, his eyes had turned blood red with slits for pupils, and his whiskers had deepened and he had grown claws. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" He rushed at him at blinding speed and nailed Haku square in to face with an earth shattering blow.

'No this can't be, that's the Kyuubi chakra, did the seal break? It couldn't have, but something big just happened.' Thought Kakashi as he finished his hand signs. "Now it is time for you to die Zabuza…Raikiri!"

Back with Naruto, Haku had tried to dodge him but only found that Naruto had grabbed onto his arm and pulled him into a crushing blow that shot Haku through his mirrors, destroying the jutsu. As Naruto shot back at him, Haku's mask fell revealing a pair of eyes he had seen before. The eyes Hinata made when she knew she had failed and had disappointed someone. Almost instantly Naruto came out of his rage and stopped his blow inches away from Haku's face.

"Why did you stop? I killed your friend you should want to destroy me. I am of no more use to Zabuza-sama. Please kill me." He then went into an explanation of his life and how Zabuza found him. How he was only a tool to be used by his master. He pleaded for Naruto to kill him, but just as Naruto was a bout to comply he said. "I'm sorry Naruto-san, but I am needed one last time." He then disappeared.

"This is the end Zabuza, you die NOW!" As Kakashi rushed in to deliver the finishing blow, Haku appeared in front of him just as Kakashi drove his Raikiri through his chest killing him instantly. Zabuza laughs and moves to cut through the two with his remaining working arm. But Kakashi quickly moves away and slices his arm incapacitating it.

They all then heard a loud laugh coming from a short man in a suit as the mist cleared. "Looks like the so called 'Demon' couldn't finish the job, and his precious boy toy died too." Zabuza was seething with the memories of him and Haku coming back to him, and he finally felt emotion for the boy.

"It looks like you are no longer my enemy Kakashi, may I borrow a kunai?" He tossed the man a kunai as he caught it in his mouth he raced towards Gato. He dodged and weaved through Gato's men that were there ready for battle. Once through them he made a be-line to Gato and sliced off his head.

Quickly Naruto and Kakashi engaged the thugs with shadow clones and drove most of them off. Then suddenly Inari and the people of the village came up behind them and scared off the rest of the thugs. Kakashi picked up Zabuza as his last request and laid him to rest next to Haku's corpse. The Demon of the Hidden Mist then died, and was later buried next to Haku on a ridge overlooking the bridge.

Hinata ran over to Arashi as soon as the Ice prison collapsed, tears were streaming down her face as she came to him. She saw what looked like a thin layer of yellow chakra encasing his body, and the senbon that apparently killed him laying on the ground next to him. She cautiously went over and held his head in her lap, her tears falling onto his forehead. 'What's going on why is my forehead wet?' He thought as he opened his eyes to see Hinata crying and holding on to him. "Don't cry Hinata-chan, it makes me sad." He said as he reached up and weakly whipped away her tears.

"Arashi-kun!" She then pulled him into a big hug, and shouted out to Kakashi, who had just layed the dead Zabuza down. "Kakashi-sensei!! Arashi-kun i-is alive!" Naruto heard this and came racing over to see his friend.

"Arashi! I'm so glad you are alright! But I have one question to ask you." Arashi gave him a weird look. "Why were your eyes silver before you went down and why did the water tornado turn to ice?"

'Silver?' Thought the copy ninja as he smiled. 'The first one in three generations of the Himura to unlock the Kekkei Genkai, and he's on my team.'

Arashi simply fell asleep during Naruto's questioning, he was exhausted. All of Team 7 was brought back to Tazuna's while they recovered. It took a week for them to be back at 100 and also by then the bridge was done. They all got set to go back to Konoha, and left the following morning. After they said their good byes and a crying fit had broken out between Naruto and Inari, then started their walk back to Konoha. As they were leaving someone asked Tazuna what they should name the bridge.

"I have the perfect name, he came here and inspired hope in all of us. We will call it The Great Naruto Bridge!" They all continued to wave as Team 7 disappeared from sight on their way back home after completing their mission.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Holy crap that was soooo much longer that I thought it was going to be. I think I'm going to start cutting down on the chapter length. But any way I hope you enjoyed it, it is only going to get better.

**Yondaime: Comment or I'll destroy you with a Rasengan!**

**Me: Don't you think that's a little harsh.**

**Yondaime: No…**

**Me: That doesn't sound like something a Hokage would do.**

**Yondaime: Oh well (Sticks out tongue)**


	4. Reunion: Rookie 10 together Again

Review Reply:

**Review Reply:**

**quicksilv: **Well I'm not going to have him learn those yet, he will but it will be later. Also I want to stay away from crossovers, so I don't know who yet but I'm starting to get an idea. I'm still a while off from making any of the pairings work into the storyline yet, just hints at them and little things. I'm following the story so far, most likely after the Chuunin exams and the Gaara fight I'll get into a lot more.

**Disclaimer: **I do NOT own Naruto.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**(On the road coming back from Wave Country)**

"So, Kakashi-sensei. Do we get credited for a B-rank mission or is it going to stay a C-rank?" Asked the blonde walking next to the copy ninja.

"Actually Naruto due to the dangerous nature and importance of this mission to the stability of a nation this probably will be classified as a low A-rank mission. But to answer your question, yes you will be credited with the raised rank. So it will be put on your records and you will be paid accordingly." After he said that all three brightened at the prospect of getting a significantly bigger paycheck.

"Oh by the way Arashi, I need to speak with you about something that happened during your fight with Haku."

"What is it sensei?" He said with a questioning look.

"Well it's probably better if I talk to you in private about it."

"No it's fine, whatever it is my team mates deserve to hear it too." He smiled and glanced over at Hinata as they both showed a little blush.

"Ok well I guess they could help answer some questions too. So during the fight did anything weird happen, like a new feeling or change in your appearance?"

"Now that I think about it, yeah just before I was hit with that senbon I had this weird feeling of absorbing something. Then my water tornado froze and I went down." Then Naruto remembered what he saw and brought it to their attention.

"Yeah, and his eyes turned silver. Not his normal blue but a really cool looking silver color."

"Now this in important Naruto, are you 100 percent sure it was silver?"

"Hai sensei it was silver, I'm positive." Arashi then looked rather worried and confused.

"Seems like I was right. Arashi did you know that the Himura clan used to have a very powerful Kekkei Genkai?" Arashi looked even more puzzled, he had never heard of any thing like that so he shook his head to signify a no. "Well I think that you activated it during your fight, I'm very proud of you Arashi." He said with a smile.

"B-But that sh-should be impossible. T-The Himura K-Kekkei Genkai h-hasn't manifested itself in t-three generations." Said the Hyuuga once again showing her knowledge.

"Yes that is true, but tell me this Hinata. Are there members of the Hyuuga that can't use the Byakugan?"

"Well y-yes, but those a-are very r-rare."

"It's the same way with the Himura, only the opposite. The Kekkei Genkai of the Himura is a very rare and very powerful Dojutsu. Do you know anything about it Hinata?" She looked deep in thought and told them the only thing she knew about it.

"Anou…w-well I o-only know the n-name. It's c-called t-the Shekkeigan."

"Correct once again, the Shekkeigan is so powerful because of two abilities it bestows on the user." Arashi was listening so intently that Naruto could have died and he wouldn't have noticed. "The first is the ability for the user to perform any jutsu they have preformed before with hand signs, without having to do them. They simply think of the hand sign sequence and the jutsu activates, it makes for very fast jutsus. Sure that is an astounding ability but it doesn't compare to the other ability. It has the ability to fully copy someone else's Kekkei Genkai and store it so that the user now has the abilities of the Kekkei Genkai. It is one of the most versatile Kekkei Genkai on earth."

"That's amazing! So Arashi could copy your Sharingan and Hinata's Byakugan just by looking at you when you have it active?"

"Yes Naruto that is what I'm saying. Now Arashi you said you felt an absorbing feeling during the fight, I think that you absorbed Haku's Ice abilities. I want you to focus your chakra behind your eyes like a light switch and flip it on." He did that and suddenly his eyes flashed into sharp silver that replaced his deep blue ones. Hinata marveled at them and started to blush. "Ok, now focus and try to find anything that would be associated with Hyoton."

Arashi concentrated in his mind and felt something that would look like a block of ice. When he opened his eyes he motioned towards a puddle on the side of the road, and the water floated into the air. When it reached Arashi's hands he thought to form it into something, so he decided to make a kunai. The water instantly froze into the shape of a very sharp kunai; he then threw it at a nearby tree only to see it pierce straight through it.

"Arashi, this is astounding. When we get back to Konoha I want you to do training to sharpen your skills at doing jutsu without seals and your Hyoton skills."

"Hai." He then leaned over to Hinata as they started to walk again after he deactivated the Shekkeigan. "Hey Hinata, if you don't mind when we get back could I copy your Byakugan and have you teach me how to do some things with it? If you don't want me to copy it I won't."

She was taken back by his comment. 'He wants me to help him train, and he is being nice enough to consider my feelings about having my ability copied. I can use this to try and get a little closer to him, like we were in the forest.' "S-Sure Arashi-kun, I w-wouldn't m-mind showing you t-t-the Byakugan." She said with a smile, truly happy that she would get to spend some time alone with the boy she had fallen in love with. Then she remembered that she needed to talk to Naruto about that. So when she got the chance she made her way up to Naruto and whispered to him. "Anou…Naruto-kun I-I kind o-of have s-something i-important t-t-to talk to you a-about."

"What is it?" He replied in a whisper as well.

"W-Well y-you see i-its a-a-a t-thing a-about…i-it's k-kind of a-about…A-Arashi-kun." She stammered out with a blush.

"Oh, ok I get it. Sure we can talk during training when we get back, I don't suspect it's something you want to discuss now is it?"

She lowered her head and started to poke her fingers together in her normal nervous way. "H-Hai, t-that sound g-good. T-Thank you Naruto-kun."

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei. Can you let me copy your Sharingan?"

"You know Arashi, you really shouldn't ask. Just do it. But I don't think my version would help because it is always on and takes a lot more chakra than an Uchiha Sharingan. So I would advise waiting until that Uchiha on Kurenai's team develops in."

"Yeah, but I wouldn't just take someone's power it kinda feels like cheating. Also people with Kekkei Genkai work for a really long time to develop them, and then I come along and gain their abilities in a second. It's really not fair."

'He's being very considerate and respectful towards the work of others. You never cease to amaze me Arashi.' "Yeah, but if your power is to gain their powers wouldn't it make sense to use it because it took you lots of work to obtain your power? You kind of contradict yourself in your theory there Arashi." He said as he chuckled.

"I'm just glad we get to go back home now! That was a great mission and all but I miss Konoha." Said the blonde in front of them

"Yeah but that really was the perfect mission for this team, I'm glad we got it, you all really improved."

"W-What do you mean p-perfect mission?"

"It was perfect for us because of our team's specialization." The three just looked at him confused; he then remembered he had never told them about the team specializations. "Well you see each team is given a specialization that complements the team member's skills and abilities. Like for example, we are the Assault Team this year. We specialize in attach on either single targets or large groups, and protecting people and things. While Asuma's team is specialized in capture and interrogation due to their skills and abilities."

"So what is Sasuke-teme's team specializing in?" Asked Naruto.

"Well since they are a larger team they can do more, but due to their abilities, they were assigned to tracking and assassinations. Shino and Kiba can easily track someone, while Sakura can come up with battle plans and Sasuke can get in quickly with Kiba and deliver a powerful blow and take out their target. I heard they got a C-rank mission a couple weeks ago to take down a criminal that had been on the run to the north of the village."

"That sounds pretty cool, but couldn't Hinata track someone with her Byakugan?"

"Yeah but that would only be within her range of sight. But lets just hurry back to Konoha, I'm sure Hokage-sama will be very pleased with the mission and the report."

When they reached Konoha they checked in with Sandaime and reported the changes in the mission and the events that transpired. 'To think that his Kekkei Genkai would manifest its self.' "Alright, I'm impressed. You all will be credited and paid for an A-rank mission. One thing to you Arashi, your Kekkei genkai is a very powerful one, I would suggest not announcing it to the world keep it secret. Just like a Shinobi should keep his jutsu secret, a Kekkei Genkai is of even greater importance. You are dismissed, but Kakashi there is a Jonin meeting about to start in the other room, looks like you made it just in time. Very rare for you." He chuckled at his last comment.

"Hai Hokage-oji-san. Ja ne." The two boys said as they left. "Good bye Hokage-sama." Hinata said as she went to catch up with Naruto to have her talk with him.

"So what is this meeting about Hokage-sama?"

Sandaime then shifted into a very serious look. "The Chunin Exams." Kakashi was taken back by the fact he had forgotten about them, then he began to think about the possibilities. They then moved into the next room to find all of the Jonin that had Genin teams.

"As you know the Chunin exams are in a week and I have brought you here to ask for your recommendations for your students. But first would the leaders of the rookie teams step forward." Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma stepped forward to face Sandaime. "For those who feel their Genin are ready please speak up and tell us which ones you recommend."

Kakashi first stepped forward, surprising everyone. They didn't think any rookies would be in, there hadn't been for 5 years. "I, Kakashi Hatake, Leader of Team 7 recommend Hinata Hyuuga, Naruto Uzumaki, and Arashi Himura for the Chunin Exams." He stepped back to allow Kurenai to step forward.

"I, Kurenai Yuhi, Leader of Team 8 recommend Sasuke Uchiha, Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka, and Sakura Haruno for the Chunin Exams."

"I, Asuma Sarutobi, Leader of Team 10 recommend Shikamaru Nara, Chouji Akamichi, and Ino Yamanaka for the Chunin Exams." They all stepped back to the murmurs of the other Jonin. It was Iruka who finally spoke out.

"Hokage-sama the Chunin exams could destroy these children, they were my students in the academy. I know their skills and abilities, they all have great potential but I think this is too soon." Kakashi then spoke up before Sandaime could say anything.

"Iruka, I know you have their safety in mind but you are forgetting something. When they graduated they were no longer your students, they are mine! Also my team just returned from an A-rank mission, I believe they can handle these exams."

"Hokage-sama is this true; they were sent on an A-rank mission as Genin?"

"Well actually it started out as a C-rank but circumstances escalated and it was classified as an A, they basically single-handedly saved the Wave Country." All the other Jonin looked on in shock and awe. 'Who are these kids on Kakashi's team?' Was the thought going through everyone's head.

"Well then I propose a preliminary examination of the rookies to see if they are ready for the exams." Stated Iruka.

"Very well, you may commence with your test tomorrow Iruka." Said Sandaime as the meeting continued.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Naruto-kun…w-wait up."

"Oh hey Hinata-chan do you want to have that talk now? We can go over to the training grounds."

"Hai." She said as they made their way over to the grounds.

"So what's up?" He asked as they got there.

"Anou…i-it's a-about Arashi-kun a-and h-how I f-feel about him." She said with her head down, while turning red.

"Yeah, I know you said you like him. What do you want me to give him little hints and stuff, try to find out how he feels?"

"W-Well I-I would g-greatly a-appreciate that, but i-it's something e-else." She then told him about what happened in the forest and what he said and what they did. "S-So, I-I figured o-out that i-it's n-not a c-c-crush…l-like what Ino-san h-has on Sasuke-san. B-But i-instead…I..I..I...l-love h-him and I-I'm afraid of telling him."

"You love him?? I'm so happy for you Hinata! You guys are going to be perfect together, don't worry he'll come around. Also I'll start on trying to influence him some here and there." He said with his foxy grin.

"T-Thank you N-Naruto-kun, I r-really do l-love him." She said as they left. 'It sounds better every time I say it' she thought as she made her way back to her house to await the next day where she would be training with her precious Arashi.

On his way back to his apartment he was deep in thought about what this could mean. 'Well I know this kills things for Kiba, he always had a thing for her. But what about me, I mean everyone has someone they like but I just don't know. I know I bug Sakura-chan but that's only because it ticks her off and she likes Sasuke-teme. So who do I like?' He then made it back to his apartment, had some ramen and fell asleep awaiting some training the next day by himself.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Good morning Hinata-chan." Said the Himura as he waved smiling.

"G-good mooring A-Arashi-kun." Smiled the Hyuuga. "Are you r-ready to l-learn t-the Byakugan?"

Arashi was very excited at the fact that he was getting trained by Hinata in her family's style. 'Yes very, so I guess I should start off by copying it." He said with a large smile, activating the Shekkeigan.

Hinata was normally captivated by his blue eyes enough, but with his sliver eyes his was almost irresistible to her. Maybe because he looked more similar to a Hyuuga then before or because it seemed like she could see more of Arashi's strength, passion, tenderness, compassion, and wisdom in them. She shook herself out of her stare long enough to activate her Byakugan.

When Arashi looked at her Byakugan her got the absorbing feeling again, then he looked in his 'database' and saw that beside the block of ice for Hyoton there appeared a pale while orb signifying the Byakugan. He concentrated on it and activated it. To Hinata she saw that Arashi's pupils disappeared and were replaced by the piercing eyes of an activated Byakugan, with the pushed out veins and everything. Is she hadn't known better she would have thought she was standing in front of a Hyuuga.

"This is awesome! So this is what you see when you do this? It's a lot to take in, I can see all around myself. It looks like I can only get about 30 foot radius on this thing now."

"That's a-amazing, m-my cousin c-can only s-see a 50 foot radius, and h-he is a Hyuuga p-prodigy!" She said in amazement. They continued a while working on the juuken stance and how to channel chakra into the palm and fingertips to fight in the gentle fist style. They worked on trees for a while until doing some light sparring with each other. Hinata was enjoying every second of spending time with Arashi. Then she noticed someone watching them and stopped.

Apparently Arashi had noticed too because he called out. "You can come out now Iruka-sensei." Then a man the looked to be from the Hidden Rain village stepped forward. But to a Byakugan user it was obviously Iruka. Arashi quickly deactivated the Byakugan before he came into view, reverting back to his blue eyes.

"So you saw threw my disguise? How about you Hinata?" She simply nodded; it was child's play to see threw a transformation jutsu like that for her. "Looks like Kakashi wasn't kidding, you guys have gotten a lot better. Well good luck, I'll see you around." He then left the two to continue with their training.

"Good luck? What do you think that was about?"

"I-I don't k-know, but l-lets get b-back to training." They did and continued to spar for a while and they were starting to get tired but continued. But then suddenly Hinata tripped and slammed into Arashi and knocked him down against a tree. When they landed Arashi was sitting with his back to the tree with Hinata laying on him with her head on his chest while Arashi's arms were wrapped around her tightly. They both sat there deeply enjoying this embrace even though it was accidental. They both were lost in the moment not fully realizing the situation, after a couple minutes until Hinata accidentally moaned "Arashi-kun…" very quietly.

It was then that Arashi's thoughts came back to him. 'What the hell am I doing, I know I shouldn't be doing this but it feels good. It…it fells…right. Why am I feeling like this? What is this warmth fuzzy feeling I'm getting in my chest. I can tell she is enjoying this but what should I do? I'm not going to lie, I like this but if anyone came across us like this they might get the wrong idea.' "Anou…Hinata-chan, are you ok? You fell pretty hard there." He said while picking them up reluctant to let go of her, when they did he instantly felt the same cold feeling he had gotten after they had hugged in the forest that one time. He was also blushing a shade that was normally reserved for Hinata alone. 'Why do I feel like I'm missing something now? I don't get it.'

She was even redder than he had ever seen her before, she looked like she was about to faint, but she was desperately trying not to. 'Maybe he does like me, should I tell him now? No it's too soon, but then when is it the right time? That felt so right.' They then continued their training half heartedly because both their minds were somewhere else. So after a while they decided to call it a day and head home. "I-I'll see you t-t-tomorrow at the m-meeting Arashi-kun." She said as she ran home with a huge smile and blush on her face. He waved to her as she disappeared from sight then decided to go find Naruto and talk to him about it.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Arashi finally found Naruto he was being harassed by Konohamaru so he decided to watch so he wouldn't get dragged into it. He then saw Sakura start to beat the hell out of both of them and the two troublemakers started to run away. But then Konohamaru bumped into a guy dressed in black with what looked like cat ears on his head dress. His face was painted and he had something on his back that was wrapped in tape.

Arashi watched the scene that was going on and right before the guy in black was about to pummel the little kid he decided to help. He activated his Hyoton and made a small ice ball, then flung it at his hand that was holding Konohamaru. The ball hit his hand, forcing him to drop the kid. But a small pebble had also hit him at almost the exact same time. He looked up to see that Sasuke was sitting in a tree with another pebble, and then Arashi walked out after he deactivated Hyoton. "So you decided to help out too Sasuke?"

"hm. I was just wondering what a couple of Suna genin are doing here." The guy in black had taken the thing on his back off and was propping it up on his side with a menacing look in his eyes.

"Kankuro, your going to use that? Here??" Said the blonde girl with a fan that was standing next to him.

Then all of a sudden a boy with a gourd on his back yelled out from the tree Sasuke was in. "That's enough Kankuro." 'Hmm, they made Kankuro drop the kid with just a pebble and an ice cube. Where did he get ice? It's July.' The boy then disappeared in a flash of sand and reappeared next to what seemed to be his team mates. "I'm sorry for any trouble they have caused." They began to leave until Sakura spoke up.

"I know that Suna and Konoha are allies, but other Shinobi aren't allowed to enter another village. Why are you here?"

The blonde girl laughed and spoke back. "What have you been living under a rock or something? Yes we are from Suna but we have permission to be here. We're here for the Chunin Exams." She then showed a stamped visitor pass, and turned to leave.

"You with the gourd, identify yourself." Sasuke said as he jumped from the tree.

"My name is Sabaku no Gaara. I am interested in you as well." He then looked at Arashi. "And you too."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, and that is Arashi Himura. I'll let you go on your way." ' This should be interesting. He's strong.'

After they had gone Arashi turned to Sasuke looking rather ticked off. "I could have answered my own NAME!! Why did you have to try to look so cool! You can be a real ass sometimes Sasuke."

"Well excuse me for helping out here; I didn't see you help out."

"Then you didn't see it then, good." Arashi said as he brought Naruto over with him and left a confused Sasuke and a drooling Sakura looking at the Uchiha. When they had gotten away and were reaching their apartments Arashi spoke up. "Uh...Naruto I kina need to talk to you about something." Naruto had an idea of what it was; he knew that he had trained with Hinata earlier. So he was expecting something along the lines of what Arashi said.

"What? Something happen during your training with Hinata-chan?" Arashi started to turn a little red, making Naruto know that he had struck the nail right on the head.

"Yeah, kinda…" He then explained what happened with the embrace and the warmth of it, the feeling that was growing inside him, and the cold feeling he got when they got up. "…I just don't know what's going on, you know I generally know what's happening but I'm at lose here. Do you have any idea?"

Naruto then started rolling on the ground laughing at how dense his friend was, how could he not get what was going on? Arashi bopped him rather hard on the head to get him to stop, and then Naruto simply said. "Arashi, you like her. I can't believe you can't see that. Well whatever I'll leave you to think this over remember we have a meeting with Kakashi-sensei tomorrow at 8, so be there by 10." He said with a laugh and a wave then went into his apartment leaving Arashi to his thoughts.

'I know I like her, I have since we first met. But what else could it be?' Then it hit him. '…no, it couldn't be. But it's the only thing that could explain it. I must…love her.' He thought as he drifted off into a dream of Hinata, as Yondaime chuckled inside him watching the dream like a movie.

'**Looks like it's almost time for him to know. I'll watch a bit longer.'**

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hey, good morning." Kakashi said when he showed up at 10:30.

"YOUR LATE!! AGAIN!!" Yelled Arashi and Naruto. Hinata just giggled, she always found the morning interaction to be quite funny. "Well whatever do we have a mission or not?" Asked the blonde.

"Actually I've come to tell you that all three of you have been recommended to participate in the Chunin Exams. It will start in 5 days, just show up to turn in your registration forms to room 301 at the Academy."

"All right! Thank you sensei!" Naruto yelled as he jumped up and comically latched onto Kakashi's neck.

"Hey! Don't slobber on my vest!" After getting Naruto off, he handed them a piece of paper. "Here are your applications forms fill them out and come to the Academy in 5 days." Then he left.

"All right, we get to show the others how much we kick ass now! Right Hinata-chan?" Arashi said as the girl reddened from his gaze. 'She really is cute when she does that. Gah! I guess I can't deny it now, I love her.'

"H-Hai Arashi-kun, w-we will show them h-how good we have g-gotten." She said nervously.

"Don't worry about it Hinata-chan, you have gotten a lot better over the time we have been genin. This test is most likely a team thing, so you have no worries. You have two of the best three Shinobi in Konoha on your team and you the third!" He said with a smile that seemed to melt away her worries.

"Thank you Arashi-kun, I-I feel m-much better. So d-do we do more training u-until the exams?"

"Of course." They then went their separate ways for the day and then continued to train until the day of the exams came up.

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The team walked up the stairs to see a group of genin being blocked entry to what looked like room 301. A guy in a green spandex suit had just been punched back from entering. Hinata identified the guy as Rock Lee, a genin on her cousin's team. Arashi figured they were trying to hide their strength and with a quick flash of Byakugan he got what was going on. He looked over at Hinata; she nodded telling him she saw it too.

They walked up to the two standing in front of the door when they told them that they weren't going to let them enter because they were saving them from the embarrassment of failing the test. Arashi simply walked calmly and said to the two quietly. "You know, I would expect Chunin to be able to do a decent Henge and genjutsu…I guess I was wrong." He then walked off calmly with Hinata and Naruto, making their way to the stairs to go to room 301 when Sasuke's team walked in. 'Oh great, he's going to make a big scene out of this!'

Just as Arashi suspected, Sasuke ripped down the genjutsu and made a big scene out of it. The disguised Chunin even tried to hit him with a spin kick but was blocked by Lee who then very creepily proclaimed his love for Sakura who was just disgusted by his eyebrows. Then there was a heated discussion between Sasuke and what looked like Hinata's cousin because of the Hyuuga traits he showed. Arashi didn't feel like getting involved so he moved out with his team.

While on their way to the stairs they heard Lee talking with someone in the dojo so they went to see. When they got there they saw Kiba in a rumpled pile on the floor with Lee in a fighting pose challenging Sasuke. "Oh hey Sasuke, you mind if we watch?" Arashi asked trying to find an opportunity to copy the Sharingan.

"Yeah it should be fun to see Sasuke-teme get his ass kicked!" Said his blonde team mate.

"SHUT UP NARUTO!! Sasuke-kun is the best; he's going to kick this weirdo's ass!!" Yelled the pink haired fan girl.

"hm. I don't care."

Sasuke charged Lee who simply kicked him in the face, shocking Sakura. But Hinata had told everyone that Lee was really strong and fast, so they weren't that surprised.

"Hm, looks like I finally get to try this out." He then activated his Sharingan. 'Finally, he is my chance.' Thought Arashi as he activated his Shekkeigan.

Once again he felt the feeling of absorbing information, and in his mind a red orb with two tomes appeared next to the one for the Byakugan. 'Alright, lets see what this can do.' Arashi thought as his eyes quickly shifted from his brilliant cerulean color to Sharingan red before looking back to at the fight as Sasuke was knocked into the air by a devastating kick to his chin. With a smirk Lee thrust his arms forward as he fell to the ground, ending up in a sort of crouch, only to disappear within an instant. Completely vanishing from everyone's vision before reappearing beneath Sasuke as he flew through the air with a pained expression on his face. "Kage Buyo eh?" He said as he was copying down Lee's movements with his new Sharingan. In that instant in the air, Sasuke glanced out of the corner of his eye to barley catch a glimpse of Arashi. 'What the Hell is that!? T-That's Sharingan! How does he have Sharingan??' Sasuke thought as he flew by forgetting the Nin under him, who by then had a stream on bandages unraveling from his covered hands and forearms. Then suddenly a pinwheel shot into Lee's tailing bandage, sticking it to the wall and pulling the boy out of attack position, but not before elbowing the Uchiha in the back and sending him careening into his pink haired team mate. Arashi could see Naruto crack a smile at the boy's pain, but what suddenly very confused as a turtle suddenly appeared in a puff of smoke. Team 7 then had the distinct pleasure of standing there and witnessing the strangeness that is Gai-sensei. When they finally got out of there they made their way to room 301.

"T-That man a-always creeps m-me out Arashi-kun."

"Yeah he is like a grown up version of Lee! Now that's scary." They then walked up to see Kakashi sitting there reading his perverted book. "Hey, you didn't tell us that your 'eternal rival' was such a creep!"

"So, you met Gai I see. Yeah he can get that way, but he means well…sort of." He said while chuckling. "But this is good; you all showed up, I was worried about you for a second Hinata." He was met by confused looks from the boys and a small smile from Hinata. "You see you need a team of three to participate in the Chunin Exams, so if lets say Hinata decided to wait till next year to try them and you two wanted to do it now, you couldn't. It's a team exam, so you need a full team. I'm glad that Hinata has enough confidence to do this, it can get pretty rough. But I had faith in you all, I'm very proud of you all." He said with a smile that made his exposed eye turn into an upside down U shape.

"Oh, Kakashi-sensei I managed to copy Sasuke's Sharingan. It's pretty cool."

"Well that should help you out, but I would recommend you not showing Sasuke that you have it, he might get pissed and question reasons you have it and all. But any ways off you go, get in there and become Chunin!" With that they walked into the room to be met with cold stared from about 150 other ninja.

"So you guys finally show up eh?" Said Kiba, as Team 8 made their way over to talk with their friends.

"Yeah of course! So Kiba how is it being on Sasuke-teme's Team?" Asked the blonde to his Academy friend.

"Well its ok, he can be a real ass sometimes but he's strong and it helps everyone out when we are training. I'm stronger than I ever thought I could be. How about you, gotten any better? Last time I saw you couldn't even do a decent transformation!" He said laughing at the blonde.

"Kiba I'm sure Naruto has advanced significantly." Said the normally quiet Shino.

Sakura suddenly smacked Kiba over the head. "Baka! Sasuke-kun is not an ass, he is the best!" Sasuke looked his normal detached look, but also was eyeing Arashi.

"So everyone made it in, this is going to be so troublesome." Shikamaru said as his team walked over.

"Alright the Rookie 10 are together again! We are going to whoop up on this test!" Said Kiba rather loudly.

Something was bothering Sakura so she spoke up. "He Ino-pig what's up with you not being all over Sasuke-kun? Did you figure out that I'm better?"

Ino just scoffed her comment off. "You can have that emotionless guy, I found someone better." No one noticed but Chouji started to look a little like Hinata by that statement.

"Nani??" It was then that everyone finally noticed that Ino and Chouji were holding hands. "You and Chouji?? When did this happen?"

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_(Flashback)_

"_Hey Shikamaru, can you do me a favor?"_

"_Depends on what it is and how troublesome it is going to be."_

"_Well... could you go talk to Ino about why she likes Sasuke?" Said the Akamichi nervously._

"_Now why would I do that…oh. Well I guess I could do that for you, ya want me to work in some stuff about you?" Chouji just nodded, and then Shikamaru went over to where Ino was eating her lunch. "Hey Ino, I need to talk to you."_

"_Huh? What about? I can't believe your lazy ass is actually doing something besides cloud watching during lunch."_

"_Well I wanted to ask you why you like Sasuke so much." 'Here it comes.'_

"_Why do you ask Shikamaru, have a thing for me?" She responded with a sarcastic bat of her eyeashes._

"_Of course not, women are way too troublesome to deal with right now. Just answer the question."_

"_Fine, well I guess I like him because he looks good and is a good ninja. Also everyone else likes him so it would make sense."_

"_So what your telling me is that you like him for his looks, and because of a rivalry with Sakur?. Man is that pathetic, I know that when if I find someone I'm going to like it will be because of what is in their hearts not their looks. Unlike with Sasuke, that guy has just about the worst personality I've ever seen. But you really should be looking for someone who will love you for you, and will want to be there with you through thick and thin." 'Maybe that will have some effect, or she will just kick my ass for insulting Sasuke.'_

_Ino just looked at him shocked, everything he had said was true, she really didn't have any solid reasons to like Sasuke, and she was really intrigued as to why Shikamaru had said those things. "Shikamaru…" He looked up to acknowledge her. "Why did you ask me that?"_

_Shikamaru just sighed, knowing something bad might happen but he decided to take a risk for his friend. "A friend asked me to do it." He then motioned his head to Chouji, who had a look of ultimate nervousness on his face._

"_Chouji? Why would he ask you to do that?"_

"_I don't know, you're the one with the jutsu that lets you inside other people's heads."_

_It worked exactly as he had planned it, that implied idea made he quickly go threw her hand signs, aim at Chouji and fired he jutsu. "Mind Transfer Jutsu." The next thing she knew she was inside Chouji's mind and it was far different from what she had expected. She had thought that it was going to be filled with food, but instead it was filled with memories and pictures of the Team, especially her. She was taken back at this but decided to look further. Then she found what she was looking for, his most important memory and the thought he has always wanted to say. The memory was when he and Shikamaru first became friends, but it was the thought that shocked her. It was something he wanted to say to her, something simple but held so much meaning. "Ino, I love you." She then released her jutsu and returned to her body._

_Chouji instantly knew what had happened, so he got up and bolted for home, he only got about 3 steps before he froze. He looked down to see a shadow connecting him and Shikamaru. He then looked over to see Ino's face; it looked confused, shocked, and accepting. Like an obvious truth had just became known to her. She slowly made her way over to Chouji and simply asked. "What does this mean?"_

_He had his head down but decided that she already ken so he might as well go for it. "It means I-I love you Ino, I always have with all my heart. I saw how Sasuke treated how you guys felt and it just pissed me off." He then looked down again. "I would do anything for you Ino; e-even go on a diet if it made you happy."_

_She was taken back, no one had ever said anything as sweet and lovingly as he just had. Also she was shocked at what he had said about the diet; he always fought and fought on that subject but was willing to do it for her. She walked closer and wrapped her arms around him as Shikamaru released his shadow and left. Tears were streaming down her face. "D-Do you really mean that, you just want to make me happy and feel cared for?"_

_He then slowly tightened the embrace. "Yes, I love you Ino. All I want is to make you happy. S-S-So w-will you …what I-I m-mean is…w-will you be m-my girlfriend?"_

_Her eyes widened, she had just found someone who truly cared for her and would do anything for her. She then held her head to his chest to hear his heart beat. "Yes…I would love to." She then started to giggle. "Also, you don't have to go on a diet, I like you the way you are. Well maybe cut down on the chips some." She said with tears still in her eyes. "Chouji, you have just made me happier than I have ever been, thank you." She then slowly leaned up and gave him a small kiss on the cheek._

"_Well I guess we should go find Shikamaru and tell him the good news." He said as they turned to find Shikamaru, holding hands the whole time._

_When they found him he saw their hands and simply said. "I don't want to know how it happened, too troublesome…but I'm happy for you. You deserved something beautiful Ino." Chouji looked confused by that statement but Ino got it and giggled._

"_I know and I have that something now." She said with a smile. Now Chouji was really confused and Ino could see it. "He meant your heart Chouji, it's beautiful. It's what makes you you."_

"_Oh." He laughed. "Thanks I guess." They finished for the day and we walking home, Chouji decided to walk Ino home. "So do you want to do anything tomorrow? How about Ichiraku's?"_

"_That sounds perfect." She said with a smile. When they got to her house they stopped and she turned to him. "Chouji, you really made my day. I can't tell you how happy I am right now. I now have you in my life even more than before, and now I can get my best friend back because we both aren't chasing Sasuke! Thank you."_

"_No need to thank me Ino…Anou…never mind." But Ino got it, she slowly came closer and pressed her lips to his, it felt like fireworks were going off behind them to the both of them. It was a memory neither one would ever forget. "I love you Ino." Then he turned to leave only to be pulled back to look at her._

"_I love you too Chouji." She was smiling and he could see in her eyes that she was telling the truth. She was just starting tear up again when Chouji promptly fainted with a huge smile on his face. Ino had some trouble waking him up but after he did he apologized and then made his way home after another small kiss._

'_She said she loves me, and she's my girlfriend!' He basically was skipping with joy when he got home. He then went strait to bed._

_Things were never the same on Team 10 after that day, the air was filled with love and Chouji had a new fire of determination for training. He had actually gained a lot more muscle and filled out a little more, he had less fat and more bulk making him much more powerful._

_(End Flashback)_

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"And that's how it happened." Ino said reaching over and giving Chouji a peck on his cheek. When she looked back she saw everyone still in shock from what they had just told them, and Sakura and Hinata's eyes were wide with the thoughts that the ones they loved might do that one day.

Sasuke was just standing over in the corner thinking how it was good he lost one of the annoying girls that hung on every word he said. 'Now I just have to figure out how to get rid of Saruka.'

Suddenly an older Konoha genin with silver hair, glasses, and a purple outfit walked over to the Rookie 10. "Hey, you guys. You might want to keep it down a little. No offence but you're the 10 rookies right? Fresh out of the Academy. I wouldn't go making a spectacle of yourselves, just cool it. This isn't a class field trip."

"Well who asked you, who are you anyways?" Rudely asked the blonde attached at the hand to Chouji.

"My name is Kabuto Yakushi. I've been here before so believe me you don't want to go making enemies right off the bat. Just take a look around." They all looked around to see everyone staring intently at them, just a little to menacingly for their tastes.

"Well if you've been here before you probably know all the ins and outs right? Got any info for us?" Asked Naruto.

"Well if I knew everything I wouldn't be taking this again. It's my 7th try doing it. But yes I actually do have information, right here on my Ninja Info Cards!

"What the heck are those?" Sakura asked, before getting a deep glare from everyone present. "Sorry, I thought we had time for the song!"

"As I was saying…" Kabuto said after clearing his throat. "Each card holds information of something about that test or the participants. I even have stuff on you guys. Go ahead give me a description and I can find them for you."

Sasuke stepped up and simply stated. "Tell me about Sabaku no Gaara, Rock Lee of Konoha, and Arashi Himura of Konoha."

"Oh, you know their names. That's too easy. Ok first up is Lee. Lets see here, looks like he's a year older than you are. He has done 11 C-ranks and 20 D-ranks. He has extremely good taijutsu but almost no ninjutsu or genjutsu. His team mates are TenTen and Neji Hyuuga." Arashi noticed that Hinata shook at the mention of her cousin's name. "Last year he got a lot of attention as a genin but for some reason he chose to wait a year to take the test. So it will be his first time just like you guys." He then grabbed the next card. "Ok now for Gaara, looks like there isn't much on him because he is from an outside village. Well he has had 8 C-ranks and…wow he has done a B-rank mission. His team mates are his sibling Temari and Kankuro. A side note is that he has gone through every mission without even a scratch."

Everyone was taken back by that information. "A B-rank as a genin, that's crazy." Said Shikamaru. Arashi only smiled because he knew his card was up next.

"Ok now for Arashi Himura. Lets see, well he is the last of his clan, his team mates are Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuuga. His sensei is Kakashi Hatake, they have done 11 D-rank and…Holy Crap! An A-rank mission. Well his ninjutsu and taijutsu are very high and his genjutsu is decent. A side note is that he is a very good strategist. I don't get why you couldn't ask him yourself?"

Sasuke smirked. "I wanted to know if your data was credible."

"Well I hope you get the point competition is going to be intense this year. Yup we have our work cut out for us."

Everyone was looking worried, and rightfully so the fact that Arashi and Naruto were shaking was enough to make everyone nervous. Then the two looked at eachother and nodded. With a loud yell both of them turned to point at the others in the room. "MY NAME IS NARUTO UZUMAKI/ARASHI HIMURA AND I'M GUNNA BEAT EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!!" Everyone instantly dove on them as not to have themselves killed.

But one of the ninja from the newly formed Sound Village had heard one of the things Kabuto had said about them and didn't like it. "I say we teach four-eyes a lesson about the Sound Village, shine some light on the mystery. What do you say Zaku?" The other one simply nodded and chuckled. They quickly ran over to Kabuto, the lead ninja with bandages all over his face and a fur thing covering most of his body jumped at Kabuto while pulling up his sleeves. There was a strange metallic thing strapped to his arm, he took a swing at Kabuto who simply dodge it by backing up. But the Sound nin laughed, when Kabuto's glasses suddenly broke and he fell over vomiting.

There was a small explosion suddenly behind them, and when the smoke cleared the Chunin proctors appeared. Then a tall man with a black trench coat, a black wrap on his head, and several scars on his face said. "It's time to begin, I'm Ibiki Morino. Your Proctor, and from this moment on…your worst enemy."

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**Wow I didn't mean to make it that long once again. I was actually going to include the 1****st**** part of the exam but I think that it would make it a little too long. Well WOO HOO for me finally having the first pairing be set up and introduced. **

**I know that this chapter was probably a little slow and all but sometimes you need that. Well anyway I would really like some comments. Tell me what you like, what could make it better. Also I'm going to be keeping track of who my readers think Naruto should eventually be paired up with, so tell me who you want to see! (Don't say Hinata, b/c she is going to be with Arashi. I'm not going to break them up even though I love NaruHina. Sorry)**

**Well anyway please comment! Tell me what you think!**

**I'll be starting the next chapter maybe tomorrow, so expect it in maybe a couple days. "****The Chunin Exam Begins!"**


	5. The Chunin Exams Begin!

**Review Reply:**

**Aurora of Light: Well yeah the Wave chapter did go kinda fast but that is really because I really don't like that arc very much. Not enough character interaction. It leaves out too many people. By the way I'm glad you agree about Arashi, you're the first person to comment on that, thanks!**

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto.

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"My name is Ibiki Morino the Proctor for the first exam…and from now on your worst enemy!" He said with a sneer. "Alright maggots hand over your paper work and go into the classroom; you will all be given a number for your assigned seat. Go to that seat and prepare yourself for the written test."

"The what? Did h-he say…Written??" One of the Chunin held up a stack of papers smirking at Naruto. "NOOOOO! NOT A WRITTEN TEST!!! NO WAAAAY!!!" Naruto screamed.

"Don't worry Naruto, we'll be fine. We've learned a lot since the Academy, Hinata-chan and I have faith in you." Arashi said with a smile. "But let's get in there and get our numbers." They then walked up to one of the Chunin and handed over their paper work and were each handed a number that corresponded with their seat in the next room. They all filed into the class room and took their seats. They were completely separated from each other. 'I have a bad feeling about this, they wouldn't just test us. There has to be a hidden motive here.' He could already see that Naruto was starting to freak out. 'This could get really bad for him. Written tests were never his thing.'

Ibiki smacked a piece of chalk against the blackboard to get everyone's attention. "Everyone, eyes front. There are a few rules you need to be aware of, and I won't answer any question. So you better pay attention the first time around!"

'No questions? What kind of rules are these? Oh well I'm sure Sasuke-kun and I will do just fine.' Sakura thought with a smile but still troubled about what Ibiki had said.

"Alright rule number one is this; the written part of the exam is conducted on a point reduction system. Unlike most tests you take, you will start out with a perfect score of 10. One point will be deducted for every answer you get wrong, so if you miss three your final score will be seven."

'And if I miss ten my final score will be zero.' Thought Naruto as he listened intently.

"Rule number two, Teams will pass or fail based on the scores of all members of the team." Everyone was shocked by this rule, they all thought it was an individual test. No one expected a team test, Especially Naruto who was terrified.

'Oh Crap!!! I don't want to fail the others!' Thought Naruto with his head down, when he brought it up he saw that Sakura was in much the same state.

"WHAT!! Your saying we all get scored as a team!?!" 'Kiba, I'll kill you if you get us failed!'

"Silence! I have my reasons, so shut up and listen. Rule number three, the sentinels you see positioned around the room are there to watch you carefully for any signs of cheating, and for every incident they spot they will subtract two points from the culprits score. Be warned, their eyes are extremely sharp, and if they catch you five times you will dismissed before the tests are even scored. Anyone fool enough to get caught cheating by the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here."

One of the Chunin that had set up the genjutsu on the second floor spoke up and said menacingly to the genin. 'I've got my eye on you guys."

"If you want to be considered Shinobi, then show us what exceptional Shinobi you can be. One more thing, if even one of your team mates gets a zero, the whole team fails."

All of a sudden Kiba felt a whole lot of killing intent flowing his way, only to see Sakura with murder in her eyes. Directed square at him, he shuttered to think what the pink haired Sasuke fangirl would do to him if they would fail. All the while Naruto looked like he was about to die from the realization that he is almost 100 likely to fail.

"The final question will be given out 15 minutes before the exam is over. You'll have one hour total." As soon as the clock hit 3:30 exactly Ibiki yelled out. "Now begin!"

Everyone turned over their papers to see nine rather lengthy questions. Naruto decided that his best option was to relax and take his time. 'Okay let's see, it looks like the first one you need to decipher a code….well on to the next one.'

Arashi was looking over the questions just like Naruto had. He had actually figured out the code and written it down. But when he moved on to the next question he was stumped. It was a complex question about shuriken trajectory and distance analysis. 'This is way too complex for us to be expected for us to know, and there is no way Naruto can solve these.' He continued to look over his test. 'Well looks like I could only answer that one question. This looks bad.'

'Well I can't do question nine either.' Naruto thought with a smile. 'WHAT AM I GOING TO DO!!!?' Grabbing he head and looking down he dove into thought about what to do.

'I absolutely need a high score for us to pass, but this is so hard! I'm almost tempted to cheat! NO! We will get failed if I'm caught.' He then saw a sentinel scribble down a number on his notepad. 'Looks like someone got caught, that's one strike for them…wait a minute that doesn't make sense. Ibiki said that if we are caught five times we fail; normally being caught once is ground for expulsion. Then why make it five, it's almost like they want us to cheat!' Then it hit him, what Ibiki had said before. "_Show us what excellent Shinobi you can be._" 'They want us to cheat, but not get caught! Now the question is who to cheat off of? I only hope Naruto figures this out soon, or we're screwed!'

'Ok, Ok don't panic. There is only one thing left to do…I'M GOING TO HAVE TO CHEAT AND NOT GET CAUGHT!!' He thought with a very panicked look on his face. Ibiki then slightly looked his way. 'Yeah RIGHT! And risk getting kicked out on my butt? I can't do that!'

Hinata had long since figured out what the test was actually asking, just about at the same time as Arashi had. She also had found two people to her surprise that had all of the answers and it looked like they were all right. She quickly scribbled it all down and continued to scan the room with her Byakugan to see how may other people had started to secretly cheat. She saw that Arashi had his Byakugan active and was looking at her paper, as was the same with Neji. She saw that Sasuke was copying the movements of a person's pencil with his Sharingan. She saw Shino using his bugs to gather information. Also that TenTen had set up some strange mirror device on the ceiling. 'How did she do that, it looks kind obvious. Also how did she set it up with no one noticing? It seems kinda weird, kind of impossible. It's pretty weird. Also that Suna guy with the red hair just creeps me out. He has been sitting there with his finger in his eye for about ten minutes now, very weird and blatantly obvious that he is using a jutsu. These sentinels really don't seem that good. More like an intimidating factor. You really must suck if you caught by them.' She then continued her observations, Kiba had Akamaru looking at other people's paper and barking the answers to Kiba. You would think they would notice a dog barking in a quiet class room but apparently not. One of the creepy Sound Ninja looked like he was just sitting there meditating. Then she saw poor Naruto and he looked really panicked. 'Oh poor Naruto-kun. I forgot that he doesn't have any spying jutsu, hopefully someone close to him has the answers!'

To say Naruto was freaking out was the understatement of the century. 'Ok, well I have to do it, he slowly turned his head ever so slightly to take a glance at the person next to him when a kunai went whizzing past his face. The kunai landed dead center in the test of the person sitting behind Naruto; he stood up and spoke to the Chunin who had thrown it. "W-What was that for?"

"Five strikes and your out, you just failed the test." He said narrowing his eyes. The leaf genin was shocked. "You and your team mates will leave the test area immediately." His team stood up and left with the one genin still standing there in shock. Then genin started failing left and right, apparently they had attempted to use the distraction to cheat some and had been caught. With in about three minutes 20 or so had failed, and the number kept growing every minute.

"No! No way, how do you know I cheated five times? Where is your proof? How can you keep track of all of us? You got the wrong guy!" A Sand genin yelled after he and been told that he failed. "How do you know I jus-" He was suddenly knocked back and pinned against the nearby wall by a Chunin that had bandages that covered most of his head and his forehead protector covering his eyes.

"Sorry pal. We were chosen for this job because we don't make mistakes like that. You can't even blink without us seeing it. We are the best of the best and you my friend…are history" He said menacingly.

"That doesn't make any sense! Your eyes are covered!!! That is completely ridiculous! How can you even see?" The genin yelled, receiving a punch from the Chunin then making him and his team leave.

Hinata couldn't help but giggle. 'He had a point that guy just hit him because he couldn't defend against what the other guy said.'

'Look at that billboard-brow, she is cranking through this! I'll give her credit though; she does have a brain behind that forehead of her's. Now I'll put it to use for me!' Ino made a couple hand signs, aimed at Sakura and fired her soul at her. After getting in she quickly memorized all the answers and then repeated the process to give the answers to Shikamaru and her precious Chouji. When she was done giving the answers to Chouji she quickly worte 'I love you Chouji! -Love, your Ino" before returning to her body that now looked like she was sleeping. Chouji just smiled when he saw the sweet little thing Ino had done for him.

Hinata had seen this too and really doubted the Chunin sentinels present. Despite the sneaky nature of Ino's jutsu she had to aim it with her hands, a very obvious motion that she was cheating. She also saw what Ino wrote and thought it was very sweet but also secretly wished that Arashi would do things like that for her one day. 'It really is weird how many obvious cheaters aren't being failed. Kiba has blatantly cheated at least 10 times; Ino had done it about 6 times. She had compared Sakura's answers with some other people to verify that answers. This is truly weird; I wonder what the 10th question is.'

'Only 20 minutes left and I haven't done squat!! Looks like I'm just going to have to wait to see what this last question is. I might make the other questions easier! Plus I only have to get one question right; he only said a zero would fail you. He didn't say you couldn't pass with a one!' He thought with a smile at his cool deduction of Ibiki's logic.

Ibiki looked up at the clock just as it hit 4:15. 'Well it's time for the 10th question, now that we have weeded out the hopeless ones let's get on to the real fun.' He thought with a smirk. "Okay pencils down! Your time is up; I will now give you all the 10th question. But before I do that there is are some more rules you should know about. Just don't let them scare you." He said with an evil smile. Then the Suna ninja that Arashi and Naruto had met earlier walked in from his recent trip to the bathroom with a smirk on his face. "Ah, there you are. Just in time too, I hope your trip to the bathroom was enlightening." Suddenly the black clad ninja took on a look of complete panic.

'What could this last question be? Even the rules are scary?' Thought Sakura desperately trying to concentrate on the situation and not think of Sasuke every two seconds like she normally does.

"But before I give you the question I leave you all with a choice. Question ten is an optional question, you can choose if you want to answer it or not." Everyone was shocked by this statement.

"And what happens if we choose not to answer the question?" Yelled the other team mate of Gaara's.

"Simple, you fail. Let me explain more, you have the choice of quitting now and simply waiting until the next exams to try again. Or you can choose to answer the question but…" Everyone looked intently awaiting the catch. "…If you answer the question wrong, you will be banned from ever taking the Chunin Exams EVER again!"

"That's BULL!" Screamed Kiba. "You have no right to ban us! There are lots of people here who have taken this exam before!"

"Yeah that is true, but I do have the right. Also they never had me as a Proctor, this is my first time, and in here I MAKE THE RULES! You just were…unlucky. But if you're not feeling confident, then by all mean skip it. Try again next year." He said with a sadistic smile. "Moving on, you all get the choice of taking the final question. If you do not wish to take the chance, then simply raise your hand and your number will be recorded as your team leaves the test. It is up to you, no decide!"

Everyone looked deep in thought, when finally one person raised their hand and decided to quit and not risk it. As soon as that one hand went up several others went up as well, quickly more than half of who was remaining had quit. During all of this Hinata was having extreme second thoughts about the situation. 'What should I do? I mean I'm not worried about me, I have the other answers and so does Arashi. What about Naruto? He and Arashi are always going on about how they are going to be Hokage one day. It would kill them to have their dreams taken away forever. I know it would destroy me if Arashi was taken away from me forever. Naruto is too stubborn to actually admit that he needs to quit. We can just come back next year, I'm sorry guys but I'm not going to let you do this to yourself.' She slowly began to lift her hand, but then she looked up to see Naruto with his hand up and his eyes shut tight.

Suddenly he slammed his hand down on the table to get everyone's attention. "DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME! I DON'T QUIT AND I DON'T RUN! YOU CAN ACT TOUGH ALL YOU WANT, YOU GUYS AREN'T GUNNA SCARE ME OFF!! NO WAY! I don't care if I DO get stuck as a genin FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE! I'LL STILL BE HOKAGE SOMEDAY!!!" He then sat down with a look of determination burning in his eyes. Hinata looked around and saw that most of everyone else had the same look in their eye, especially Arashi.

Ibiki had a look of slight astonishment on his face after Naruto's little speech. "This decision is one that could change your life. If for any reason you would rather quit…now is your last chance."

"No way, I never go back on my word. That's the Way of the Ninja!" Naruto stated, only making more people determined to follow his decision.

'Hmm, remarkable. That little outburst has given the others some backbone. He's inspired them into staying. 78 left, more than I expected. But I don't see anyone wavering. I think that's it.' He looked over to the Chunin to see them smiling and nodding to him. "Well then, I admire your determination, nothing else. For those of you remaining, there is only one thing left to do, and that's for me to tell you…" Everyone got a serious look on their face. "…That you've all passed the first exam." He said with a rare smile.

Confusion washed over the genin and Naruto simply dropped his pencil in shock. "I... I passed?" He said questioningly.

Sakura leapt out of her seat. "Whoa, hold on. What just happened here, where is the 10th question?"

Ibiki simply laughed happily. "There never was one! Not a written one at least. Actually your decision to stay was the answer to the tenth question!"

Now it was the blonde Suna ninja's turn to be confused, only it was mixed with anger. "Wait a second! So the other nine questions you gave us were just a waste of time!?!"

"On the contrary, the other nine questions were designed to test your ability to surreptitiously gather strategic intelligence under the most adverse circumstances." Ibiki went into a lengthy explanation of the hidden purpose of the exam and how the questions were far beyond the knowledge of an average genin. How there were two Chunin sitting in on the test with all the answers.

There were numerous voices that spoke in agreement on how they had found the Chunin. 'The answers were right in front of me the WHOLE TIME!?!?!' Thought Naruto. "Yeah they were easy to find for an expert ninja like myself." He said calmly trying to play it off cool.

'He had no idea, what an idiot!' Thought Sasuke as he watched Naruto trying to be all cool.

Ibiki then took off his head covering to show the gruesome sight underneath. There were burns, scars, and puncture wounds that clearly showed what he most likely went through because of bad information. He then explained the importance of intelligence and courage for a mission to be successful. How life and death decisions are an everyday part of the life of a Chunin. "Those who choose the safer of two paths, those whose determination falters in the face of adversity, those who would put their comrades' lives in jeopardy while worrying about their own, and those who would save their own necks at the price of sacred honor will NEVER be able to call themselves Chunin! At least as long as I am here. As for the rest of you, those who successfully answered the 10 questions I gave to you have earned the right to continue on to the next step. You have passed through the first gate; I hereby declare the first part of the Chunin Selection Exam completed. There is nothing left but to wish you all good luck."

"ALL RIGHT WE DID IT!! ONE DOWN!" Naruto said while jumping up and down with excitement, it wasn't long before Arashi had joined him in his celebration as well..

Ibiki laughed inwardly at the sight of Naruto and Arashi. 'Those two are funny ones.' Then suddenly a black sphere busted through the window and dramatically opened up to reveal a banner with a person standing in front of it. 'Jumped the gun as usual' Ibiki thought as he sighed

This scared the genin and got their attention immediately. "Head's up boys and girls! This is no time to be celebrating. I'll be your next Proctor, Anko Mitarashi. You ready for the second test? GOOD!! Now Follow ME!!" The woman with fishnet clothing, purple hair, a trench coat, and a mini-skirt yelled while striking a rather silly pose.

Ibiki poked his head out from behind the ridiculous banner that was separating the two. "You're early...again."

'Great our second Proctor is a screaming nutcase, reminds me of Naruto.' Thought Sakura with a strange look on her face.

"Ibiki! How many are there, you let all these guys pass? Your test was too easy, you must be getting soft!" Anko said with a distained look on her face.

"Or it could be a stronger crop of candidates this year."

"They sure don't look it. Trust me before I'm done with them, more than half will be eliminated. This is going to be fun. All right, you maggots have had it easy so far, but things are going to be different starting first thing in the morning. I'll let your squad leaders know where you are to meet me. Dismissed."

After everyone had left Ibiki decided to collect the tests and give them a quick look threw. When he got to Naruto's he picked it up and looked at it. The papers in his other had fell to the floor as he started to get a large smile. "I just passed a candidate who didn't answer a SINGLE question. He is a funny one, that Naruto Uzumaki."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next morning all the genin who passed were gathered in front of a large forest that was completely fenced off with warning everywhere on the fence. "Welcome to the location for the second phase of the exams, the 44th battle zone. Also known as…The Forest of Death!" Anko said to the shock of the genin. "Alright this is a survival exercise so everyone fill out these." She said as she handed out a form to everyone.

"What's this?" Asked Sasuke.

"Well these are release forms; it makes me not liable for you if you die in there. Just sign it and take it over to the Chunin over there. When you get there you will receive one scroll per team. Either a Heaven or an Earth scroll. The object of this test is for you to take a scroll from another team so that you have both scrolls. It is an anything goes battle to get the scrolls, and then make your way to the center of the forest, there is a tower there, and that is where the 3rd stage will be held. You have a time limit of five days in there so get cracking and get your scrolls."

After they had turned in their paper work each team made their was to one of the gates around the perimeter of that forest. When Arashi, Naruto and Hinata had gotten to their gate Arashi noticed a nervous look on Hinata's face. "Hey, don't worry Hinata-chan all we have to do is find an Earth scroll. I have a plan for when we get in there don't worry your pretty little head about it. I'll make sure it goes well, ok?" He said with a smile to the Hyuuga.

'Did he just call me pretty? I think he did, does that mean he likes me? What should I do? I hope I don't faint.' She thought as she took on a nice shade of pink. "T-Thank you Arashi-kun, t-that helps a bit."

When the clock struck the gates were opened and Team 7 ran in to quickly find an area to work out their plan. All of the other teams rushed in as well, some had the test on their minds. While others had targets that they were going to seek out.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After about an hour of running through the forest, Hinata spotted a small hidden area that they could set up a kind of base camp in. When they got in Naruto plopped down to hear Arashi's plan. "Okay what is the big plan, are we going to do something crazy awesome?"

"No, we are simply going to split up and try to make contact with another team." Naruto just looked blankly wondering why they would do that. "Well you see Naruto we need to find the others to get a scroll so if we are split up then we can cover more ground faster. So Naruto I want you to go to the east, Hinata and I will go north. I will keep hold of the scroll and when you have a scroll we will meet up at the tower, but if we find each other before we get to the tower we can travel there together."

"What? Why am I by myself?"

"Simply because you can do Kage Bunshin, we can't. You can even the numbers game. Oh and Naruto if you come across the other Rookie teams don't attack them, even if it's Sasuke! I would advise that you try to join up with them, you can help them out and maybe get an extra scroll with their help."

"Oh man! I wanted to go after Sasuke. Well whatever, see you guy sat the tower whenever I get there." With that he sped off to the east to try and find another team.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"This spot if perfect, are they near Shino?" Kiba asked while the Bug Ninja simply nodded. "Ok we can set up our trap and try to catch us some prey. Hopefully they have a Heaven scroll." Kiba said manically while Sakura and Sasuke really weren't interested.

"You know Kiba I think it we actually fought someone it would be better than a lousy trap." Said Sasuke when they got the trap working. Akamaru suddenly perked up.

"Shhhh, we have some visitors." Said Kiba quietly. Within moments screams were heard from the trees near them as a rain of Konoha Leaches fell on the unsuspecting team watching team 8. They well from the trees and directly into the net that Kiba had rigged up. Walking over to them slowly Kiba said to them. "You know those are Konoha Leaches, just five minutes with one of them on you and your dead. Lucky for us we have one of the few people who the leaches will listen to on our team. If you were to give us your scroll I'm sure he could convince them to leave you alone."

"Take it! Just get them off us! We don't want to die!!!" The leader of the group said as he threw an Earth scroll at Kiba.

""Tisk tisk, see we already have an Earth scroll, we have no obligations to free you." He said with a laugh as he pocketed the scroll.

"KIBA!" Sakura smacked him over the head, barely missing Akamaru. "Let them go, we have their scroll, they aren't a threat. They failed; there is no need to kill them!"

"Fine, if I let you guys go, do you promise to leave safely and quit." He asked the tied up ninja.

"YES!!" With that Shino went over and untied them and told the leaches to leave them in peace.

"If you don't lave quickly, they will be back. And hungrier." Said Shino as he saw the team race for the exit, not wanting to deal with the forest anymore.

Akamaru smelled something funny and told Kiba; he looked over to a nearby bush and saw that Naruto walked out of it. "Hey guys that was a pretty cool trap you had. But I got a favor to ask you guys."

"No you can't have our scroll; if you try to take it we'll kill you." Stated Kiba, as he slugged the blonde who then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Man, you're jumpy. I'm not going to take your scroll; I wouldn't knock my friends out of the exam. Who do you take me for? Sasuke?" Kiba laughed at the comment and relaxed a bit. "I actually have a proposition for you Kiba, I saw that you now have two Earth scrolls, and it is what my team needs. I suggest that I join you guys and help you get a Heaven scroll. I exchange for my help, I get the Earth scroll at the end."

'That was actually logical! Where did that come from?' Thought Sakura.

"So your team split up. That gives me an idea, yeah that would be fine with me Naruto. How about you Sasuke, since you think you're the leader and all."

"Whatever, it makes sense to me. But I suggest that we split up as well, Naruto comes with Sakura and I while you and Shino go a separate way since we do things differently."

"Shut up Sasuke, that was MY idea!!" Said Kiba. "But whatever, when we find a Heaven scroll we'll find you guys. Akamaru will sniff you guys out easy. See ya later guys." He said as Him and Shino dashed off into the trees to find a scroll."

"You have no idea how much you saved us Naruto. He gets on our nerves so much, isn't that right Sasuke-kun?" Said Sakura to the ever cold Sasuke.

"You better not slow us down Naruto, let's get going."

About an hour later Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto we traveling to a deeper part of the forest when they suddenly heard a blood curdling scream tear our from behind them. "Looks like Kiba caught another team." Scoffed Sasuke.

"I do not like this place Sasuke-kun!"

"Oh come on! It's nothing to be scared of, its gunna be a piece of cake! Oh, excuse me a second I really have to go…" Said Naruto before Sakura hit him over the head demanding he go in the bushes. When he finally got back he said. "Wow, I really had to go. I wrote my whole name!" But something was off to Sasuke. So he slugged him right in the face, knocking him back into a tree. "What that hell was that for?"

"What have you done with Naruto?" Sakura just looked puzzled. "Where is he? This guy has his kunai holster on his left leg, but Naruto is right handed. Whoever you are, you're pathetic. Your Henge is even worse than Naruto's!"

The Naruto before them changed into the form of a Rain ninja in a full body piece and a water breather. "Looks like you saw through it, now to business. Give me your scroll!" He demanded with his hand extended.

"Look here, why don't you run along before something bad happens to you. Unless you want to give us your scroll that is." Sasuke said in a mocking arrogant tone. The rain ninja charged straight at Sasuke wielding a kunai. Quickly Sasuke shot out a Katon: Phoenix Flower Jutsu, but he easily dodged the fair balls. Leaping up and over a tree branch he could see the real Naruto tied up, so he threw his kunai and cut the ropes holding him while he pursued the enemy. But quickly the Rain Nin threw three kunai at Sasuke, who easily moved under the branch he was standing on. He then noticed the explosive tag on one just as it blew up, taking half the tree with it. Luckily Sasuke had gotten out of the way.

When Sasuke landed from escaping the tag the Rain Nin appeared behind him. "Sorry but this is one test you fail, hand over the scroll or you die!" Just as he was about to deliver a finishing blow he noticed the kunai Naruto threw coming straight for him so he simply jumped to avoid it, thinking it would hit Sasuke instead. But he gathered chakra to his feet and caught the kunai, whipping around he launched it at extreme speed at the ninja as he was in mid air. He barely dodged the kunai but couldn't move as Sasuke drove another kunai straight into his shoulder.

Their recent enemy decided to cut his losses and flee. Sakura was about to go after him when Sasuke stopped her. "We don't know where his team is, they could be waiting in ambush."

'I wish, I shouldn't have come alone. I'll get these stinking kids later, I promise!' Thought the ninja as he sped back to his team.

"We were lucky that time, now we need to learn from our mistake. We need a password to know if it really is each of us. So I'll ask when a ninja strikes, the answer is A ninja waits until the time is right, when the enemy sleeps and drops his guard, when his weapons lay forgotten in the stillness of the night, that is the moment for a ninja to strike."

"Come on, that is way to long! Can't it be like swordfish or something?" Asked Naruto.

"It's not that hard Naruto, did you get it Sakura?" She nodded in response.

"I mean I still got it but shouldn't we use a simpler one?" Before Sasuke could answer there was a giant gust of wind that knocked everyone aside. Sasuke and Sakura jumped into a nearby bush and looked back to see a gulley carved into the ground from the wind jutsu.

"Where's Naruto?" Asked Sakura, but then he walked out of the bushes brushing himself off.

"Hold on, what's the password?" Asked the Uchiha.

"Oh right. A ninja waits until the time is right, when the enemy sleeps and drops his guard, when his weapons lay forgotten in the stillness of the night, that is the moment for a ninja to strike." Answered Naruto calmly.

"Just as I thought." Sasuke said with a smirk as he flung a kunai at Naruto.

"What is wrong with you Sasuke? He got it right!"

"That is what's wrong. Do you really think Naruto could have memorized that entire password and recite it back word for word? There is no way, not the Naruto I know! Not in a million years, you would have an easier time trying to teach it to a hamster."

"Very clever, you must have seen me spying on your little group." Said the grass ninja with a large hat and a purple rope ties into an upside down bow on her back. "It sure looks lie you haven't dropped your guard, this promises to be very entertaining." She said licking her lips with a long snake-like tongue.

She then reached into her bag and took out her Heaven scroll. The two leaf genin looked at it intently. "Oh, you would just love to get your hands on this Heaven scroll wouldn't you? It would go nicely wit your Earth scroll." With that she raised it up and promptly ate the scroll. "Well, when this is all over one of us will have both scrolls…and the other will be dead."

Suddenly Sakura and Sasuke were overwhelmed by a wave of killing intent more powerful than anything they had ever felt before, it was almost palpable. Then were both frozen in fear, visualizing a kunai shooting into their skulls. When they looked at the woman they could see their own death. 'Looking in her eyes, I saw the moment of my own death! We have to get away from her, this woman id Death!' Sakura had already collapsed from the fear, but Sasuke was fighting it as hard as he could. He slowly managed to pull out a kunai and ready himself for combat.

"Very good, now what happens?" Sasuke was again hit by another death vision that froze him in place. "Don't worry I'll make it quick." She said as she drew two kunai. But I don't have to tell you that do I? You've already seen it. I expected you to be more of a challenge, how disappointing." With that she flung the weapons at the frozen genin.

With all his will power Sasuke drove his own kunai into his leg, negating the fear with pain. This act allowed him to quickly grab Sakura and run to hide from the monster that was in front of them.

"A clever move, but a clever one. It looks like the hunt is still on. I will get you in the end." The grass ninja said as she slowly moved off into the forest.

When they had gotten far enough away Sasuke put Sakura down and painfully pulled the kunai out of his leg. Sakura moved as to try to help but he only covered her mouth with a panicked look covering his face. She was very worried, about what had happened but noticed that a rather large snake had appeared behind them. She tried to speak but her mouth was still covered.

Sasuke noticed at the last moment and moved out of its attack. While in the air he freaked out and destroyed the snake with about 15 shuriken screaming "Get AWAY from me!!"

To his horror, from inside the snake started to appear the grass ninja. "I sense your fear and desperation. It's only natural, the prey must never let down its guard not even for a moment, when in the presence of its predator!" She said laughing maniacally. She then started moving with the lower body of a snake, slithering her way towards the terrified Sasuke. Then all of a sudden several weapons shot out right in front of the monster effectively halting her.

Everyone looked up to see a blonde haired orange clad boy looking very heroic. "Looks like I came just in time!"

"Naruto!!" Sakura yelled in relief.

"Oh and by the way…what was that password again?"

Looking surprised the snake-like woman said. "It looks like you managed to escape from my friend I see."

"Yeah, like a snake could take me down. I tore him to shreds with my new jutsu!"

'He doesn't get it he doesn't understand the fear! I have to do something.' "Take it! Take the scroll and leave us in peace, it's what your after isn't it?" Said Sasuke.

"Very smart of you boy, to save your own life sometimes the prey must distract the predator with something else enticing."

"Sasuke are you crazy? You're just going to hand the scroll over to the enemy? I need that scroll for helping you guys!"

"SHUT UP AND STAY OUT OF IT NARUTO!! You don't understand, we'll get you another one!"

Sasuke then tossed the scroll towards the grass ninja, only to have Naruto catch it half way threw the throw. "Naruto what are you doing!?! Stop trying to be the hero, just stay out of this and leave it to me!" Naruto then turned around and landed a solid hit on Sasuke's face. "Stupid fool, you don't know what your doing!!"

"I may not know that password, but I know who I am. You're the one I'm skeptical about. How do we know you're the one you say you are?"

"Naruto are you crazy? It's him, don't be so stupid!" Yelled out Sakura.

"What are you talking about? It's me you dobe!"

"Liar! The Sasuke I know would NEVER do something as cowardly as give the scroll to the enemy! Also how do you know she would let us go?"

"As far as the scroll goes, I could simply kill you and take it. I would never let you go." She said as she summoned a gigantic snake with her on the top of its head. Naruto ran at her to attack but the snake simply knocked him into the air. He had taken a big hit and was falling back down towards the snake when something strange happened. His whole body seemed to pulsate, and when he opened his eyes they were no longer blue. They were blood red also his whisker marks got deeper and more distinguished. Suddenly he dealt out a devastating array of punches and kicks to the gigantic snake, knocking it back with more force than could have ever been expected to come from Naruto. Landing on the side of a tree he shot back at the woman on the snake. She simply smirked at what she had just witnessed knowing who he was instantly. She then blew a Katon jutsu at him; knocking him back and making him crash down threw the tree tops.

"That fire in his eyes, there is no mistaking it…the Kyuubi." She said very quietly. 'Things have now gotten very interesting indeed.' "Now then let's see how well you do Sasuke!" With that the snake lunged toward the Uchiha who was still frozen in shock from Naruto's power and fear from the woman in front of him. Just when it seemed he would be eaten, an orange blur appeared in front of him, blocking the snake.

Sasuke was shocked to see the eye's of what appeared to be Naruto, but not quite Naruto to be in front of him. "Hey kid, your not hurt are you? You scaredy cat!!!" Suddenly the woman's tongue wrapped around Naruto like a rope and pulled him up to her face with him fighting the whole time.

"I see, when your anger is roused some of Kyuubi's chakra seeps through the seal. Ahh, here it is the seal has appeared on your skin." She did a hand sign and then her hand glowed with purple flames. "What an interesting childhood you mush have had. Five Pronged Seal!!" She yelled as she slammed her hand into Naruto's stomach, as he let out a scream of pain.

"Sasuke-kun! Hurry and do something!!" Sakura yelled to her frightened team mate.

The grass ninja laughed at Naruto's pain and threw him into a nearby tree trunk, he then plummeted down to his doom. But Sakura managed to stick him to the tree with a kunai threw his jacket.

Everything was hazy for the blond for a while he couldn't move but he was still conscious. After a while of what sounded like intense fighting, he heard a horrible scream that sounded like Sasuke. Trying to pay attention he fought off the blackness that was over taking his senses.

"What have you done to Sasuke-kun? Who are you?" It was diffidently Sakura judged Naruto.

He then heard a new voice that sounded to shift out of the woman's voice, it was obviously a man's voice but it chilled Naruto's bones to the core. It was a voice of pure evil. "Oh that, let's just call it a parting gift. My name is Orochimaru, and before long Sasuke will seek me out. He will seek my power."

"Sasuke-kun will never go to you!" Yelled the Pink haired girl.

"Oh he will, it's his destiny." The evil voice said. That was the last Naruto heard from the voice. All that was left were the screams of Sakura trying to reach Sasuke through the screams of pain that were coming from his mouth. Then everything went black for Naruto.

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**First cliffy (sort of), well next chapter will be pretty intense. Also it will show the emergence of Arashi's connection with Yondaime.**

**Also I'm disappointed at the number of reviews I am getting, they really inspire me to write more, that is why it took so long for me to update. I only got 1 review in the last week! **

**So I want you the viewer to tell me what you think could help the story line. **

**But I'm starting a voting thing send me a review and then at the end tell me who you want Naruto to end up with. Remember Hinata, Ino, TenTen, and Sakura are off limits. I will do the pairing that gets the most votes! So review!!! And wait for the next chapter "Awakenings in the Forest of Death!"**


	6. Awakenings in the Forest of Death

**Review Reply:**

**Quicksilv: **Yes he is going to learn that, but that is a loooooong way away. Also I know what it is, but thanks for the message. But you should have voted for Naruto's pairing.

**Animeflunky: **Well I'm glad you like it.

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto!

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Katon: Dragon Flame Jutsu!!" Yelled Sasuke as the giant firs stream rushed towards the trapped Grass Ninja.

"AHHHHHHH!!" She screamed in pain as the massive attack struck its mark. She then slumped over when the attack finished in apparent defeat.

"Sasuke-kun! You did it!" Sakura said as she ran towards the Uchiha, only to be cemented in place by the same fear she had felt earlier, only this was more powerful.

The supposedly defeated Grass Ninja slowly puller herself out from the wires holding her down, snapping them like string. She slowly walked closer and looked at them intently. "Such mastery of the Sharingan at so a young age." Suddenly her voice shifter to a man's voice, a deeply chilling voice dripping with evil and malice. "You truly are an Uchiha after all. Yes you'll do nicely." He said whipping his for head protector reveling it to belong to someone from the Sound Village. You are diffidently his brother, if anything your eyes are even keener than Itachi's." With the mention of Sasuke's brother he instantly got a look of hatred and glared at the man in front of him. The face of the grass ninja was peeling away and he could see the true face underneath in the left eye area. It was a gray skinned face with evil looking yellow snake eyes.

"Who are you? What do you want??" Yelled Sasuke.

"My name is Orochimaru, but as to what I want. That will have to wait until we meet again. This won't happen until you finish this test with the best score of all. First you will have to defeat the Sound ninja who serve me." Sakura then yelled something about never wanting to meet him again to Orochimaru. "Oh but we will meet again."

He then made a hand sign and this neck extended so it could get all the way over to Sasuke. Orochimaru then bit into the Uchiha's neck, causing a mark to appear. It looked very similar to the three tomes of Kakashi's Sharingan but without the center pupil. Retracting his neck Orochimaru began to laugh and sink into the tree beneath him. "What did you do to him?!?" Sakura screamed as Sasuke began screaming in agonizing pain.

"I just gave him a little parting gift. Very soon Sasuke will seek me out, he will desire my power. In the meantime I enjoyed the demonstration of the powers you already posses." With that he dissapeared into the tree branch leaving them all by themselves with Sakura being the only capable person there. Naruto was passed out on the tree still, and Sasuke had just passed out from the pain. Sakura was worried, so she eventually dragged the two to an opening in a large tree and made a small camp to help them wake up. She sat there all night watching Sasuke writh in pain and Naruto not moving at all, not knowing she was being watched the entire time by the Sound team that was just outside waiting in the bushes.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Come on you guys, just because we are taking a break that doesn't mean that can make out like that in front of me. How troublesome I should never have helped you out Chouji." Said the lazy Nara trying to get what was going on in front of him to be erased from his memory.

"Get over it Shikamaru, your just jealous that's all." Said the Akamichi with his love sitting in his lap cuddling close to him as they rested for a bit before looking for a team to steal a scroll. He then held Ino even tighter as her smile grew even wider than it had been before. "But anyway what is our strategy going to be for getting the scroll o-great strategist?"

"You can really be troublesome Chouji you now that." Chouji just smiled because he knew everyone was troublesome to his lazy friend. "Well I was thinking that we could use the Ino-Shika-Cho formation, you know immobilized them, figure out which one has it, retrieve it, then you pulverize them."

"Sounds perfect, give us about 10 minutes to ourselves and we can get going." Said the blonde with a sly smile on her face. Shikamaru got up grumbling and went to the other side of the tree they were leaning up against. He didn't mind hearing what they say to each other, the thought it was cute and all, he just didn't want to see it. When Shikamaru was gone she hugged Chouji even tighter and buried her face in his chest, she was beginning to notice that since they had gotten together he had actually started to loose a lot of the fat that he had. It was starting to be replaced with powerful muscle, and she liked it. He had almost given up eating his chips, sure he still had a bag or two a day but not nearly as much as he used to. He needed them for his jutsus but he was beginning to learn to rely on the chips less and less. Sure he was still hungry, that would never change, and he had just started to eat carrots and celery as a way to keep his mouth busy.

"Hey Chouji-kun." He looked down to see her with a question stirring in her mind. "Why have you been giving up on your chips so much lately? I don't want you to do it if you're only doing it for me, I love you the way you are."

He laughed slightly at her for her comment. "Well Ino-chan, I'm not doing it for you. I'm doing it for me, I'm tired of being made fun of for being fat. Also I'm coming up with more powerful expansion jutsus. The fact that you're finding me more attractive is only an added bonus, but I appreciate it." She blushed knowing that he saw her noticing his changes. "But it's mostly for the jutsu, it's the concept of power. Enlarged fat is still just a padded as regular fat, it doesn't harden it. So by working on it and gaining more muscle I can make enlarged muscles that will make me more powerful in total and when I enlarge it will be like getting hit with a big rock instead of it being padded."

Ino was surprised at the logic behind his theory, he was right muscle was a lot harder than fat. Also she had noticed that his destructive power had dramatically increased. Before he would be lucky to bust up a tree with a single punch, but now he was destroying boulders with a punch. She knew that whoever happened to land a hit on would be in a world of pain, she had seen it up close in one of Shikamaru and his' sparring sessions. "That's really smart Chouji-kun."

She picked her head up brought it up to his where their lips met in a loving kiss that exuded the blissful feeling that they both experienced every time they kissed. When they broke it Chouji looked in her eyes and saw what he wanted to, admiration, warmth, care, and love.

"Chouji, why didn't you tell me how you felt earlier? I had to pry it out of you." She asked, it had always bothered her since they got together but this was the first time she had actually asked about it.

He looked up at the clouds above much like Shikamaru did on a daily basis and said. "Well the truth is that I was afraid and I wanted you to be happy. I was afraid that you wouldn't like me because I was big and that it would break apart the friendship we already had. I was content just being your friend, I just wanted to make you happy. If you were to continue to try for Sasuke, I would have helped you if it made you happy. Even at the expense of my feeling, I've always been a giving person and if I came out and declared my feelings I thought it might make you confused. That just seemed a little selfish to me, for me to put my feelings above making you happy. I loved you and I wanted you to have a good life, even if I wasn't the cause of your happiness."

When he looked down back down from his little speech he was shocked to see Ino in tears. She pulled him close and gave a passionate kiss, blowing away every other kiss they had shared before.

"Wow." Was all he said when they separated. "What did I do to deserve that?"

"Chouji-kun…that was the single sweetest thing that anyone has ever told me. What you said about how you feel, that is what I believe true love is. You've made me happier than I have ever been or would have ever been if I had gotten Sasuke. I love you Chouji Akamichi for you. I don't think I could ever love someone as much as I love you; the funny thing is that every time I think I couldn't love you more. You say something like that to open my eyes to how much more I really love you. I don't care if you were the fattest person in the world, I'd still love you." She wrapped he arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder. "I always want to be with you, I never want you to be alone again, and I'll always be here for you."

She looked back at him and he had a couple tears in his eyes. He pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. "I won't be as long as I have your love, and you'll never be alone ever again either because I'll be there to make you happy and take all your troubles away."

They heard Shikamaru chuckle a bit from the other side of the tree. "Shut up Shikamaru! You're just jealous that you don't have someone like Chouji has me!"

'Yeah I know, but It would be too troublesome for me to bring it up so whatever. Maybe I'll find someone who will care for me maybe not. I'm not going out of my way to find them.' "Whatever, let's get moving we still need to pass this test." With that they took off in search of an unsuspecting team to ambush.

After searching for about two hours they found what they were looking for, a team of Waterfall Ninja. They had just found a place to make camp for the night and were setting up their sleeping areas inside the trunk of a giant tree. "Ok, you guys know the plan. Ino pick one of them and get inside them. Pick around in his head to find out who has the scroll and if it is an Earth scroll like we need. If they have a Heaven scroll just get out of there, if they have what we need stretch his arms over his head so I can trap the other two." She nodded in agreement; Shikamaru could always put together the perfect plan for whatever the situation at hand demanded. "Now Chouji, when get the other two I want you to beat them down into unconsciousness. I don't feel like killing today. Then Smash the guy Ino is in just as she leaves. Then we can collect our scroll and head for the tower."

They moved in close silently to get within range of Ino's Mind Transfer Jutsu. She preformed the jutsu, aimed at what looked like the most powerful one in the group and fired her soul at him. To his team the only thing that happened was that their leader stiffened up a little bit and had a look of thought on his face. 'Let's see well...yeah great luck! They have a, Earth scroll and this guy has it. Hmmm, ha-ha this guy is also hiding that he's gay! I can have some fun with this before I get the other guys.' Shikamaru had seen the look on the guys face and figured Ino was going to have some fun first. He guessed he would wait till the signal to trap the other two.

"Hey Nobo, you okay? You looked like you had something on your mind." Asked the Waterfall ninja to Ino's left. She searched the guy's mind for his name and found it, it also was apparent that this was the guy that he was in love with. She was going to have such fun.

"Yeah, I'm fine I just have something that I've been hiding for a really long time and I kinda want to get it off my chest Rukamaru." The guy looked at him questioningly.

"Okay, but why now you're always so closed off with your feeling. You wouldn't even tell us what girl you liked back home!"

"Well it has something to do with that…I'm gay."

"WHAT???" Said the other two, clearly shocked out of their skulls. Ino was laughing her head off inside Nobo's head.

"Yeah I'm gay, really gay actually. Also I have something to tell you Rukamaru…I'm in love with you. Will you be my boyfriend?"

The other two instantly threw up at the new information presented to them. "Hell no Nobo! I'm straight, sorry but What the Hell!?!" He said rather loudly. Ino was having a really hard time keeping the guys face straight during all of this. So she stretched his arms over the guys head to tell Shikamaru to trap them.

Within seconds the two freaked out guys couldn't move. "What's going on? I can't move!" Shikamaru walked out of the bushes making the other two walk towards him.

"Ino did you really have to traumatize them like that?" The waterfall ninja were really confused now.

Who they thought was Nobo skipped over to Shikamaru like a girl. "Come on Shikamaru, it was hilarious did you see their faces when they found out their manly leader was into men? I could hardly keep a straight face the whole time I was in here!"

"What's going on!?!"

"Well you see, my team mate's soul is inside your friend's body right now controlling his movements and has access to all his thoughts and memories. She got in there to find out if you had an Earth scroll but found something she thought was interesting and decided to have some fun. I'm sorry about that."

"So he really is gay??" Shikamaru just nodded his head and told him that she had access to all his thoughts so it was true. The guy threw up again.

"Geeze you guys can't accept your own friend? Looks like he's really not your friend after all. Also I'm sorry for this."

Chouji leapt over Shikamaru with his arms already expanded and the size of a large boulder each. He came down and slammed them onto the waterfall ninja's head's, knocking them out. "You ready Ino?" Nobo nodded and raised his hands into Ino' release seal.

"Release!" He said and Ino shot back to her body that was still in the bushes with Chouji's scarf wrapped around her. Nobo regained consciousness only to see two giant fists come crashing down on his face, putting him back into the darkness he had just emerged from.

"So Ino, who has it?" She came out of the bush with the scarf around her and pointed at Nobo. Shikamaru went over and retrieved the scroll. "All right, let's head for the tower."

"Wait Shikamaru, I have to do something first. It'll make it perfect." She continued to drag Nobo's unconscious body over to where Rukamaru laid and put them together. Then she placed both of their hands on the other's butt.

All three of them then burst into laughter at the sight in front of them. Ino really had made the perfect ending to the fun she was having earlier. They then got up and jumped into the trees, making their way towards the tower to pass the test.

They had been traveling for about an hour when they heard a fight breaking out and screams of pain. "Let's check it out." Said Chouji, and the other two nodded as they changed directions towards where the sounds were coming from. When they got to it and peered through the bush they were behind the scene in front of them shocked them. "What happened here?" Chouji whispered as they took in to scene in front of them.

The first thing they saw was Sakura on top of guy with a rather strange outfit. She had a kunai in one of his shoulders and was holding on to the arm with her teeth. What shocked Ino the most was the fact that a little while away was a girl that a big clump of Sakura's hair in her hand. It looked like She had cut most of it off, the hair she had grown out to impress Sasuke with was now cut and laying everywhere. There was a guy with a big fur thing on his back and a device on his right arm. They recognized the team as the Sound Team, and then they saw Rock Lee collapsed in a heap near the opening to a tree trunk. Inside they saw the unconscious bodies of Naruto and Sasuke, but Sasuke was giving off a strange purple chakra that felt very sinister and evil.

"We have to help them; Sakura's my friend now that I'm not after Sasuke!" The other's nodded as they sprung into action.

The guy with the bandages and the arm thing was dashing at Sakura to deliver the finishing blow and get her off his team mate when he suddenly found that he wouldn't move.

"Dosu, what's wrong why did you stop?" His female team mate asked. He looked over to see Shikamaru connected to him with his shadow. Then he started making rather odd poses.

"So this is the Shadow Paralysis Jutsu of Konoha, I've heard about it before." Dosu said as the other guy finally managed to get Sakura off him and knock her back towards where Lee laid.

"It's now called Shadow Possession Jutsu; get your jutsu straight will you." Smirked Shikamaru. "Ino, get the girl"

She nodded and fired her soul at the girl. Nothing seemed to happen for a couple seconds. "Kin what are you doing, get them!" Yelled the only free man on their team at the moment.

Ino replied with a smirk. "Kin isn't here right now Zaku." She then rose up a kunai to her own throat. "Now leave or else I kill your team mate. When you are far enough away that we can't feel you we will release her and let her go."

"So what are you going to do about it, you're the only one that hasn't done anything fatso." Chouji just stood there with a glazed look in his eyes.

"Did I just hear that right? What did that guy just say?" Said Chouji very calmly.

'Oh man this is bad, he just pushed Chouji's button big time.' Thought the Nara ninja.

"You want to try saying that again?"

"I said it looks like you're the useless one on your team, fatty." Replied Zaku.

A fire of murder lit up in Chouji's eyes as he screamed at Zaku. "EHO ARE YOU CALLING FAT?!? I'M JUST A LITTLE CHUBBY OK!!" He spun around and then released a massive amount of chakra blowing a huge wind away from him; Sakura could barely keep where she was lying. "CHUBBIES FOREVER!!! Now it's personal, it's a fight to the death between Leaf and Sound!!!" Chouji instantly blew up into a giant ball, then pulling all his limbs in and tucking his head down he started his attack. "Human Boulder Jutsu!!" He then started rolling at Zaku at amazing speed, Zaku thought to simply blow him away with his air cannons but when he did it was just stopping Chouji because of the spin on him.

Chouji then bounced high into the air, jumping over the air wave planning to come straight down on top of Zaku. He only had seconds to jump out of the way before Chouji slammed into the ground making a crater. 'I'd be dead if that had hit me!' Thought Zaku as he continued to run from the spinning Chouji.

"So are you guys going to leave or do I have to kill your friend?" Said the possessed Kin. Zaku only laughed at the statement. 'Something's not right here.' Then it hit her as Zaku raised his air cannons to face her. "CHOUJI!! Get over here!" Zaku fired a blast of air at Kin but Chouji got in front of it in time but Kin was knocked into a nearby tree, making Ino's real body have a line of blood come from her mouth. "I don't understand you guys, what kind of monster would attack his own team mates?" Asked Ino/Kin.

"I guess, monsters like us." Replied Zaku.

"You see we don't play this game by your rules, it's not the scrolls we are after, and we really don't care about passing this test. We are here for Sasuke." At that second Shikamaru's shadow retracted back to him. "And it would look like there is a time limit for your little trick. It also looks like your friend there can slip her soul into an opponent and control them. Clever but dangerous, anything that happens to her happens to her body; so let's say Kin were to die…"

"You would really kill your own team mate?" Said an angry Shikamaru, if there was anything he treasured above being lazy, it was his friends. If someone didn't care for their friends it really ticked him off.

"If push came to shove…yeah." Said Zaku snidely.

"You really thought you could defeat us? Your second rate ninja from a second rate village." Remarked the head sound genin.

"So I guess that makes you from a third rate village!" A new voice rang out from the trees. Everyone turned to see Neji Hyuuga and TenTen looking down at them. It looks to me like someone used our team mate like a punching bag." Activating his Byakugan Neji took on a very serious look. "No one does that and gets away with it!!!"

"Well are you going to stay up there all day? Or are you going to fight?" Asked Dosu.

"Actually it looks like it has been taken out of my hands." Everyone turned around to see Sasuke standing and awake in full glory and power as the curse mark on him seeped out and covered half of his body. Purple chakra was circling him like a vortex of power; the entire left side of his body was covered in black flame marks on his skin. He turned and with an evil look in his eye looked at Sakura.

"Sakura, who did that to you"

Everyone just looked on in horror; this wasn't the Sasuke they knew. He was different, much more sinister, bloodthirsty, maniacal, and downright evil looking. "S-Sasuke-kun, what's going on?"

"Don't worry it's only the power flowing threw me, but I like it. I like the power; I've never felt better in my life. This is his gift; he gave me power and showed me who I am. I'm an avenger, I need power to reach my goals and I don't care where I get it from. Even if I have to be consumed by evil. Now who did this too you Sakura?"

Dosu was literally and figuratively shaking in his boots; he realized what this power was and knew he was no match for Sasuke right now. He was panicking he needed to get out of there with his team. He looked over and saw Ino go back to her body leaving an unconscious Kin lying on the ground. He finally came up with the idea to give them his Heaven scroll and leave peacefully, but before he could say anything Zaku opened his big stupid mouth. "I did it, and what of it? You gunna do something about it?"

"Zaku no!! You fool."

It was too late; Zaku released his most powerful attack towards Sakura, Sasuke, and the sleeping Naruto. "Supersonic Slicing Winds!!!" A giant chakra infused wind blasted the area where they once stood, but Sasuke appeared behind them all with Sakura and Naruto next to him.

He dashed forward and kneed Zaku in the stomach forcing him over, then getting behind him he gripped his arms and held them in a very painful position. "It looks like you're very proud of these arms of yours. Let's see just how 'attached' you really are to them." With a sharp pull and a snap Sasuke dislocated Zaku's arms causing him to scream in agonizing pain. "Now it's your turn." He said turning to Dosu.

But before he could attack Sakura launched herself and caught Sasuke in a hug from behind, crying into his back. "Don't do it, you beat them, that's enough, don't do it." The curse mark slowly receded back and left his skin leaving only the original mark. Sasuke then fell down into Sakura's arms as the last bit of strength left him.

Shaking terribly Dosu put down a Heaven scroll and said. "We can not defeat you as you are now Sasuke Uchiha, please accept this scroll as a trade for our escape. But the next time we meet, I will kill you." With that he picked up his team mates and quickly left.

Naruto woke up just as Dosu left. "What's going on?" He then realized what was going on when he passed out. "Everyone get down that snake lady is around here somewhere!"

"Shut up Naruto, everything is fine right now." Shikamaru said as he bopped Naruto on the head.

After about an hour of explaining things to everyone and getting the hurt people recovered Sasuke got up and tossed Naruto an Earth scroll. "Here, there is your payment dobe." Then with a small smile that is rare from Sasuke. "Thanks though, we couldn't have done it with out you…even though you're a dobe." He then walked over to an area where the wind was blowing, did a couple hand signs. "Scent Locator Jutsu" There was a small glow of red on the ground and a target appeared and started smoking in a vapor the turned colorless after it got about 5 feet off the ground. "Hey Sakura, now we just need to wait for Kiba and Shino and we can go to the tower." He then went back to the tree and laid down. "Wake me up when that idiot gets here."

After about 20 minutes Kiba showed up with Shino in tow. Everyone was currently talking about how every team there had gotten both scrolls and were congratulating each other. "Hey we smelled your locator, you guys get a scroll?" Sakura held up the Heaven scroll, and Kiba yelled in happiness. "Sweet, we seemed to only find Earth scrolls. You guys need any? We have three, and two with you guys so five in total." Everyone shook their head saying that they had both scrolls. "Hey Naruto, what are you still doing here? I would have figured you to try to get back to Arashi after you got the scroll. Also I smelled his scent yesterday mixed in with a bunch of other people's blood so I got worried, you better go find him and Hinata."

Naruto had almost forgot about meeting back up with his team. "Oh yeah! Which way do you think he's at Kiba, now I'm worried." Kiba lifted his nose to the wind and took a sniff. He then pointed off to the north.

"I still smell a lot of blood where he is, you better hurry." Kiba said with a worried face.

"Thanks see you guys later at the third part of the exam!" He said as he jumped into the trees and sped off at top speed towards where Arashi might be.

When he was gone, Sakura turned to Kiba. "Now what didn't you tell him?"

He was caught, Sakura knew him too well a smile crept across Kiba's face as he said. "I never said there was any of Arashi's blood. But seriously there is a looot of blood where ever Arashi is. It smells like a massacre." He said with a cold face. 'Plus there was that odd smell that came from him yesterday; it's still faintly there but not as strong as it was when it flared up.' He thought with a serious look on his face.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto was rushing through the tree line going as fast as he could to try and find Arashi and Hinata. After about an hour of looking he came across a clearing in to trees and what appeared to be a massacre scene. There was blood everywhere, three bodies laid out in the middle with slashes, blunt trauma, snapped limbs, and electrical burns all along their bodies.

Naruto was examining the scene closer up to find that the electrical burns were accompanied by some little holes going straight threw their bodies. On one there was a rather large hole that went straight threw one of the ninja's heart, they were obviously Rain Ninja, and from the holes only Arashi could have done this. The thing that was running threw Naruto's head was 'Why?'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**(2 Days ago)**

"Find any teams Hinata-chan?"

"N-No, not yet, h-have you Arashi-kun?"

"No, nothing. But hey lets stop for the night we don't want to get too tired no do we." He said with a smile at the shy Hyuuga who blushed at his smile. 'She sure is cute when she does that. No! Stop that, we are in the middle of a test, don't let your feeling get in the way. Not now.'

They eventually found a tree to camp inside of; it was big but not too big. Just the right size for two people. They got inside and unpacked their sleeping bags, placing them next to each other. Then it hit Hinata that she was going to be sleeping right next to the boy that she loved more than anything, it would have been easier if Naruto was there but they were all alone. She began blushing furiously at the thoughts that were racing through her head, she just wanted to have him hold her close and cuddle all night. 'I wonder if I should tell him tonight. Will he even accept me?"

While Hinata was thinking about confessing her love, Arashi was deep in thought as well. 'We need to find a scroll and fast, the longer we are out here the more desperate people will become. I don't want anything bad to happen to Hinata so we need to find an enemy team tomorrow.' He looked over to Hinata and smiled. 'Now what do I do about the situation at hand? Should we talk for a while? I don't even know if she likes me!'

"S-So Arashi-kun what are w-we going to do?" She asked, wanting to get into a discussion with the Himura.

"Well I really don't know, we really shouldn't leave unless nature calls because enemy ninja might be in the area. I suggest that about every 15 minutes or so we give the area a Byakugan scan to make sure no one is near. But between then and when we get tired I guess we could talk about stuff."

Here was her chance, if she could get the courage to steer the conversation towards feelings then maybe she would be able to tell him. "T-That sounds nice A-Arashi-kun. W-What do you want to talk about?" She hoped it would be something that could lead to their feelings.

"Well actual, I've wanted to ask you thing for quite some time." Her eyes lit up at what her imagination was coming up with. "Could you tell me about your family? I really don't know much other than your dad is the head of the Main Branch."

She wan kinda disappointed that it wasn't about a date, but he was interested in her personal life, she thought there could be implications there. "W-Well Otou-san is h-head of the c-clan. I a-actually have a younger s-sister as well, her name is Hinabi Hyuuga she is five years younger than I-I am. Otou-san r-really l-likes her better than me though, h-h says t-that she isn't a f-f-failure…b-but I t-try my b-best to prove h-him w-wrong."

"Hinata-chan, you're not a failure and never let anyone tell you that you are. But what about you're Kaa-san? I've never heard anything about her before." He then felt like he had said something terribly wrong.

Tears started to well up in Hinata's eyes at the mention of her mother. "W-Well you s-see she d-died." The tears started rolling down her cheeks.

Arashi noticed them and felt horrible and idiotic. "I'm really sorry Hinata-chan; I shouldn't have brought it up if it makes you cry. I don't want you to cry."

"N-No, i-it's not your f-fault. I just m-miss her, s-s-he died in c-childbirth w-with Hinabi. I-I think t-that is why Otou-san l-likes her better, b-because she i-is the last t-thing that h-he received f-from her." She then broke out in more tears as all the happy memories of her and her mother stated coming back. Her life had been much happier with her mother; she had seen the kindness in Hinata's eyes and didn't push her as hard as her father did. She saw that she wasn't a failure, she was just strong in a different way that he father wanted. She wasn't really a warrior like her cousin but was a kind heart that only wanted to make others happy.

Arashi noticed the new tears and the look of reflection of Hinata's face, so he did the only thing that came to mind. He moved over and wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight. "I'm sorry, if you don't mind could you tell me about her? Maybe it will make you feel better, thinking of happy thoughts." She nodded her head as she sobbed into his chest.

She knew she was being hugged by the one she loved; the blush came as always but not as intense. 'He wants to help, maybe he does care. I do know that he wants me to feel better, but he doesn't know that just by being hugged like this I am as happy as can be.' "W-Well She was a very beautiful person; she w-was very kind and went o-out of her way to make s-sure everyone was as h-happy as they could be. She cared for e-everyone she knew and d-despite not liking f-fighting she would gladly p-protect those close to her. It was a-always good with her around; Otou-san didn't push me as h-hard as he does now."

Arashi smiled at the description he heard her say. "I know someone just like that too." She looked up at him questioningly. "It's you. From what you say, I don't think your Otou-san is just pushing you. I think he might be trying to make you stronger so that he won't have to go through the pain of loosing you too. It just sounds like he doesn't know when too much is too much."

She was amazed at what he had said; he thought that she was beautiful? Also he had seen what had eluded her for seven years, he father's reason for pushing her. It was all clear now, he wasn't pushing her because he didn't like her, he was doing it because he lover her and wanted to protect her. "T-Thank you Arashi-kun, I f-feel a lot b-better now."

They stayed there for a while just talking about things, the conversation never did steer in the direction she wanted it too. But he never did let go of her, they stayed there in the embrace just talking. They were talking about how they thought Naruto was doing when he noticed that her breathing had slowed down. He looked down to see that she had fallen asleep with a huge smile on her face, griping his jacket. 'She looks beautiful; I don't want to ruin this so I guess I'll just go to sleep too.' Then were leaning against the wall of their little campsite, so Arashi let go momentarily and grabbed the sleeping bag that was closest to them. Opened it up and covered them with it, soon he started drifting off to sleep as well with Hinata still hugging him. He head was resting on his shoulder; the smell of lavender was with Arashi as he closed his eyes. Just as he was about to fall asleep he heard her whisper his name in her sleep. With that he fell into a deep sleep dreaming about the girl on his chest and the future he wished they might have.

When she woke up, she noticed that she wasn't lying down but was rather propped up against something soft and warm. She slowly moved to see Arashi's arm wrapped around her. She instantly turned crimson, 'We fell asleep in each other's arms! He must at least like me, why would he not move me? I'm pretty sure I fell asleep first.'

He started to move a little in his sleep and whispered something very quietly. "Hinata-chan..." A wide smile spread across his face and then his eyes fluttered open. "Oh good morning Hinata-chan. I hope you're not mad I didn't move you last night, you just looked so comfortable and content." She turned red at the thought of him watching her sleep, but then she realized that she had done the same thing to him.

He got up and stretched, and re-packed his bag. "Hey Hinata-chan, we really need to find a team to take a scroll from today. The longer we wait the more desperate teams will get and the less available scrolls there will be. Well I'm going to go do a scan outside for anyone near, stay in here till I come get you."

He went out side and jumped up into a tree and turned on his Byakugan. He instantly saw a team of Rain Ninja waiting rather close to the tree where Hinata was. He didn't want to alert them so he pulsated his Byakugan, causing Hinata to sense it and look at him. He motioned at her to get out of there and pointed to the Rain Ninja. She inched her way to the opening and tried to dart out of the doorway, but something happened that Arashi didn't expect.

"BOOOOM!" An exploding tag went off on the side of the tree that Hinata was exiting. She was flung about 30 feet away and landed at the base of another tree; she was out cold and didn't look too good. The Rain Ninja came out of their bush and started making their way towards Hinata.

From what Arashi saw things looked bad, really bad. He had to do something, he had to protect Hinata. Then something in him just snapped, a huge wave of power washed over him. The rain ninja felt the killing intent coming from the trees and readied for battle. Arashi came rushing out of his spot Saying one thing. "I have to PROTECT HER!! You're all going to die for what you did to her!!" When he landed he felt faster, stronger, and more powerful that he had ever felt before. Also there was a strange chakra enveloping him, it was a yellow chakra that gave off power. There were many thoughts running through Arashi's mind as he looked at his opponents. He had to destroy them for hurting Hinata, but he really didn't want to kill them, but if he didn't then they would just regroup. He had never killed before but he knew for certain that he was going to right now.

The Rain Ninja spread out to try and take down the leaf genin in front of them; they readied their weapons when they heard him say something to them. "You hurt Hinata-chan, you're going to pay…with your lives." He narrowed his eyes and the strange yellow chakra the was covering him started to retract back into him flicking his hair as it went in. It changed his hair color a bit, instead of all light brown; the bottom part had changed blonde like Naruto's hair. It now looked like there was a ring of blonde fire on his head that shifted into his normal hair color after a few inches.

One of the ninja laughed at the fact he was getting so riled up over the girl getting hurt. "So what if we hurt the girl, believe me we are going to hurt her a lot more when we are done with you, boy!" He then burst out in an evil laugh.

This sent Arashi over the edge; he entered into a rage that he had never been in before. All he wanted to do at the moment was destroy anything and everything that could be a threat to his precious people. He was going to utterly destroy these people. He activated his Shekkeigan, and called forth the Hyoton power along with the Sharingan. "Hyoton: Ice Sword Jutsu" he said as he thought of the jutsu, then long blade of ice formed around his right arm, it was harder that steel and sharper than any kunai he had ever had.

He then decided to do another jutsu, "Doton: Rock Club Jutsu" He said slamming his left hand into the ground, when he raised it there was a foot long club of rock attached to his arm much like the ice sword.

The ninja readied themselves for battle. The one on Arashi's left first threw a kunai at him, but Arashi simply vanished and came back into sight about 15 feet to the left and closer to the ninja to his right. 'He's so fast! But I think we can handle him' Thought the smaller ninja that had thrown the kunai.

Arashi totally caught the rain ninja he was going at completely off guard; he smashed the club into the side of his body, snapping his arm in several places. He left out a loud scream but only felt more pain as the ice sword pierce his stomach and was violently slashed out to the right. Being completely cut open, blood sprayed everywhere. He was dead before hit the ground because Arashi followed the slash up with a club smash to the top of his head, shattering his skull.

The other two looked on in horror as their team mate was gutted and utterly destroyed in about a second and a half. They stood therein shock at the sight of Arashi taking his first life, he then turned to them. They decided to go on the offensive, rushing at Arashi they were trying to hit any point that would disable him so they could avenge their team mate.

Every time they would get close enough to actually hit Arashi, he would vanish and appear behind them. They would only have enough time to move just enough that he didn't lop off a limb with the ice sword. After a couple minutes of fighting like that, they had numerous slash marks across their bodies, but Arashi still didn't have a scratch on him. His speed was incredible, they could barely keep up with him and they were the strongest genin in all of the Rain Village. It was going evenly until Arashi managed to hit the smaller one with the rock club. It came down on his left shoulder with so much force that it not only ripped it right off his body but shattered the club into thousands of pieces. Then within a second Arashi followed up with a clean sweep of his sword, cleaving the ninja in two, then he decided to get rid of the ice sword and just use the Sharingan. Blood was everywhere now, all over the clearing they were standing in and it was all over Arashi. It truly was a massacre. 'This is bad, this is really bad. I have to do something big if I want to kill this guy.'

The rain ninja went for the biggest and most powerful jutsu he had in his arsenal. While he was doing the hand signs Arashi was carefully watching with his Sharingan, copying the jutsu while he maneuvered the ninja away from where he might hit Hinata with whatever he was planning on using on him.

With a final dodge the rain ninja leapt into the air, leaving himself a sitting duck for a counter attack. But he figured that this jutsu would destroy Arashi. "Katon: Dragon Flame Jutsu!!" Arashi was expecting a water jutsu from the rain ninja, not a fire one. The massive wave of fire came screeching towards Arashi, he barely managed to escape. It only singed the right sleeve of his jacket a little. He then went through the hand signs in his head for his jutsu and charged up his fist with lightning energy. "Raiton: Lighting Laser Jutsu Shotgun Style!!" He released the attach from his fist as nearly a hundred Lightning shots raced towards the unexpecting ninja with a larger shot traveling down the center of the lightning stream. He looked on in shock as the blue lightning raced closer towards him, it would be the last sight he would ever see.

About fifty shots hit him, causing little pencil sized holes to appear all along his body as he fell back down to the ground dead. But only one really needed to hit, and that was the main shot. It had struck him directly over the heart and now a six inch wide hole was now where his heart should have been. When his body hit the ground an Earth scroll rolled out of his bag. It rolled over to Arashi's feet; he then picked it up knowing they could pass with this. He was the disappointed to see that a couple of the shots had gone through it and rendered it useless.

Hinata has finally regained consciousness just as Arashi dodged the Dragon Flame Jutsu; she was awed to see his next attack and the devastating power that was behind it. But she couldn't help but feel sorry to the man as he plummeted back down to earth dead. She then looked around and saw the bodies of the other two and the pools of blood that surrounded their corpses.

Arashi had finally defeated them and had regained his composure. Gone was the wrath that he had for the ones who hurt the one he loved. Now there was only concern for her health. He turned around to see her staring at him and his new hair coloring. But then his eyes laid sight on the bodies behind him and he was horrified. 'Did I really do that? I didn't think it was that gruesome.' It then set in, he had killed not one but three people and brutally at that.

He collapsed as Hinata ran over to him. "NOOOO! Not like this!!! It wasn't supposed to be this gruesome!!" He screamed as the tears finally surfaced. He was crying uncontrollably, disgusted at what he had done. The next thing he knew he was back inside the tree with Hinata holding him close and stroking him blonde and light brown hair. He looked up at her with tears in his eyes questioningly, she was crying too. But she was crying because she didn't know what to do to help him. "Why are you trying to help me? You saw what I did, I destroyed those men! I'm disgusted with myself, I'm a monster!"

She only continued to hold him and stroke his hair. She then spoke to him in a very caring and understanding way, but what surprised him was what she said and how she said it. "You are not a monster Arashi-kun. Death is a part of being a Shinobi, but most importantly you did it for the right reasons. You did it to protect someone; you did it to protect me. Now you need to rest, it's my turn to protect you now." She said with out stuttering once.

He looked at her with wide eyes. "T-Thank you Hina-chan…" He then smiled largely. "…You didn't…stutter." He then passed out from chakra exhaustion.

She was sitting there just about as shocked as he was. She was also as red as a tomato. She laid him down on the ground and looked intently at him. She rather liked the new look, it looked like very good and she thought it made him look more powerful that he already did. But then her mind returned to what he had called her, 'Hina-chan' it was what her mother had called her. It made her feel very happy knowing that the two people that make her the happiest are the only ones who call her that. She smiled before she continued her watch out for other enemies. "It's my turn to protect him now." She said with determination. She really hoped that Naruto would come back soon.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Wow that was an intense chapter! Well next time Arashi will find out about Yondaime and the Preliminaries start up.**

**Also yes before you ask, I got the Shotgun Style from Yu Yu Hakusho.**

**Review please, and tell me what you think!**

**Next chapter should be out within about 3-4 days, maybe less if you review!!! They really help me write faster!**


	7. Second Exam Over!

**Review Reply:**

**Quicksilv: **Yes I have seen it in action. Also I don't plan on any big 'twists' until I catch up with the manga. But I will be setting up a poll at the end of this chapter for something I haven't figured out yet.

**Dragonlor562: **I see where you are coming from, but there haven't really been a lot of instances where Naruto could show what he could do. It is Arashi centric, but also I'm following the story-line for the most part. Naruto will get much more powerful, plus he already has more chakra that Arashi does. I appreciate that you like the story and are telling me what I could do to fix it. Hope you keep reading!

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto

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Naruto was inspecting the bodies of the dead Rain Ninja, looking over their causes of death. It was obvious the they were killed by Arashi, he was the only person Naruto knew who had an extremely powerful Raiton jutsu. The only thing running through his head was 'Why?'

He barely had enough time to dodge the rain of kunai that fell upon him. Spinning around he turned to see Hinata with killing intent in her eyes. "Hinata?"

"N-Naruto-kun?" When the thought that he was finally back set in she yelled to him as he came over to where she was. "Naruto-kun! Arashi-kun has been out for a day, I've done my best to help him out and protect him!" They went into the tree trunk where Arashi was still sleeping; the first thing Naruto noticed was the change in Arashi's hair. It looked like his hair color, he then turned to Hinata and asked hat had happened.

After she told him what she had happened while she was conscious Naruto had a look of shock on his face. Hinata had left out the parts that she felt was more romantic and how he had called her Hina-chan. After the explanation she went over and replaced the towel on his head. "Hinata-chan, where did he get that power? I know Arashi just about more than anyone and I know he isn't that powerful. I'm stumped; he had been trying to complete that Shotgun Style for a little bit, I don't know how he pulled it off! Also why did his hair change?"

"Anou…m-maybe i-it was t-t-to protect m-me?" She said with a blush.

"I hope so Hinata-chan, if not I don't know what could have caused it. We will have to ask him." He sat down with his arms folded deep in thought. "But come on, what else went on between you two? You stayed the night together in here, I doubt nothing happened." He said with a wink and a laugh.

"W-W-W-W-What w-would make y-y-you say t-that Naruto-kun." She said with a huge blush on her face.

"You know what, now spill it."

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Arashi opened his eyes to find himself not in the forest surrounded by the devastation he caused. But instead he was in what looked like the hallway in his apartment, except that there were torches on the walls and the same yellow glow that he had seen many years ago and that had consumed him a little bit earlier. 'Where am I?' He thought, but a second later he heard his voice. "Where am I?"

"**Your inside your mind again, I thought we had gone over this before?"** Arashi was surprised at the voice, the same one that had spoken to him the last time he was here. His mind still had the same feel to it that Arashi had felt before, but it was cleaner and a little brighter than it had been. **"I figure that it is about time we met and you knew the truth. If you would please follow the yellow glow down the hallway. You'll know when you get here."**

Arashi did as he was told despite this being his own mind. As he slowly walked down the hallway, making turns and such he noticed that the walls were littered with what looked like pictures. There were pictures of all his friends and people he knew, there were pictures of something that had happened so he figured they were memories. There were a few that really grabbed his attention; the first was when Naruto and he first met in the orphanage. The next was the bell test with Kakashi-sensei, but he eventually came across one and it was framed in gold. It was none other than the day that Arashi had figured out that he was in love with Hinata. Also right next to it was the time that he first saw her at Ichiraku's when he was 6.

Looking at most of the pictures brought a smile to the Himura's face. **"Ahh, thinking about Hinata again are we?"**

That snapped Arashi out of his thoughts about her and made him continue down the hallway. "So what if I was thinking about Hina-chan, since you live in her you obviously know how I feel. So what's wrong in thinking about her, also as I remember I'm here because I was protecting her."

"**So it's Hina-chan now, hahaha. But yeah I guess your right, but despite how smart you come across. Naruto is still right about you..."** Arashi heard a hard laugh that reminded him of someone he knew. **"You really are dense sometimes.**

Arashi sprouted a Hinata like blush when he realized he called her that again. "Well that's not very nice of you; I still don't have any clue why he laughs at me for that. I guess there is some truth to what he is always going on about." Arashi rounded a final corner and stepped into a giant room, dwarfing any of the other rooms that he had passed on the way there. Inside the room there was a gigantic cage door the seemed to go up forever and on the cage was a small piece of paper that said 'seal' on it.

"**It's about time you got here, I was really getting bored. So hi!"** Said the voice from inside the cage, Arashi squinted to try to identify whoever was behind the bars but only saw an outline of a man with shaggy hair ninja pants and a cloak. **"I know you're wondering who I could possibly, but I want to have some fun first. So you're going to have to guess who I am. I'll only give you one hint, and that is your name." **The man said with a laugh.

Arashi didn't really like this all that much but it was the only way to find out who was apparently sealed inside him. "Let's see you said it has to do with my name…well I'm the last Himura so I don't think that it has to do with that name. So then it is connected to the name Arashi." Arashi stood there deep in thought, but the thoughts were just echoing in the mindscape. "So apparently I should just say my thoughts, well that only leaves one option. Who I was named after…" His eyes went wide as the realization hit him. "Y-Y-Yondaime Hokage!?!?!" Yondaime then walked out of the darkness and closer to the bars, showing it to be him.

Arashi saw the smiling Hokage walk towards him in his white cape with his flack jacket and ninja pants on, he had blonde hair exactly like Naruto's only longer and had the same deep blue eyes that Arashi had. He had a warm smile on his face and was scratching the back of his head with one hand and waving with the other one. **"Hey, yeah that's me. Arashi Namikaze, so I'm only betting you have some questions."**

Arashi was still in shocked at the sight before him, standing in front of him was the greatest and most powerful Shinobi to walk the earth and who supposedly died with he killed the Kyuubi. But instead he was sealed inside Arashi; it was too much for him to handle at that time so he sort of blanked out for a couple minutes. Yondaime was looking concerned but when he saw his eyes start to move again he figured the kid would be fine. "HOW THE HELL DO I HAVE A HOKAGE SEALED IN ME???? Aren't you supposed to be DEAD??"

"**Geeze Arashi, make me deaf why don't you! Well a Hokage isn't sealed inside of you; I believe that Sandaime is Hokage now so I'm just Yondaime. But as to how I got sealed into you, it's a very complicated story but lets just say that some things happened in my battle with Kyuubi and when I was about to die I bumped into your soul as it was going to enter your body as you were born. So I quickly sealed myself into you so I could look over someone precious to me."**

"Wow, that wasn't vague at all! But who is this person, and what are these 'some things' that happened with the Kyuubi?"

"**Well actually I can't tell you that right now. Believe me I really want to but it might be negative to your development."** Arashi just stood there questioningly, and decided that it was just going to be a waste of time to try to pry into it.

"Anou…Yondaime-sama, what happened with the fight earlier? I felt really weird and this odd chakra washed over me and messed with my hair."

"**Well to tell you the truth that was me, you see I can give you my chakra when you need it. I like to see it as rent for me living in here. But about your hair, I guess the chakra was making you a little more like me when you used it. You see you were on such an emotional strain when you saw Hinata get hurt and go down that you reached out for anything that would help you destroy those who hurt one of the people most precious to you. I gladly gave you the power but it seemed like it was a bit too much for you and you kind of lost control for a bit. That is why it turned out to be as bloody as it did.**"

Arashi hung his head at the thoughts of what he had done to those Rain Ninjas, but he did realize that it was a necessary evil because if he hadn't they would have done horrible things to Hinata. He wasn't going to let anything bad happen to his Hina-chan.

"**But I'm proud of you for doing it for the right reasons, also that you didn't take pleasure in taking their lives. You did it to protect those you love and felt remorse afterwards."**

"So what are we going to do now, how does this change things for me? Also how do I tune out my thoughts to you, and will I be able to talk to you without having to come here?"

"**Well the only thing that changes is that from now on you're going to have another sensei. Also we can communicate on the outside by you focusing on my chakra inside of you and thinking to it, also you can lessen the volume of your thoughts and senses here. But the easiest way would be for you to tell me not to pay attention or listen, because I can cut myself off from your thoughts and senses but you can't cut me off."**

"Y-You're going to train me?" Arashi said wide eyed. He couldn't believe that he was going to be taught by the greatest Hokage of them all. Now he was definitely going to become Hokage one day.

"**Yes I'm going to train you, I can give you regiments to do on the out side to train your body and also I can train you in jutsu in here while you sleep. Kind of like a dream but you will retain everything you learn."** Arashi turned his head as if he sensed something. **"Well I think that it's about time that you woke up. But you can not, and I repeat CAN NOT tell anyone that I am in here! It will only complicate things; maybe you could tell Sandaime after a while. But just remember that you can always call out to me when you need help or advise. Hell even if you just want to talk. I'll see you around Arashi."**

Yondaime gave him a small wave as Arashi suddenly woke up. **'That boy has such potential even without me in him. He is truly going to be unstoppable when he learns how to harness my power and abilities.'**

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"HINA-CHAN!!" Arashi screamed as he bolted up from his slumber. She was had been laying down right next to him holding his hand while he slept but his awakening had jolted her awake along with Naruto.

"Arashi-kun!! You're all right, I w-was so w-worried." She started to cry and threw herself into Arashi's arms and just cried into his chest. Arashi could barely make out what she was saying between the sobs but he heard the occasional "I thought I lost you." along with other things about how worried she was.

"I'm okay Hina-chan, are you okay? Did anyone show up and try to fight you while I was out?" Hinata blushed deeply at him calling her Hina-chan again, but she figured that it was there to stay.

"I'm fine Arashi-kun; you have b-been asleep for about a day, but Naruto-kun s-showed up a few hours ago." Arashi looked over to see Naruto looking over at him smiling like the fool he was. "Anou…Arashi-kun, Naruto-kun a-also managed t-to get an E-Earth scroll." She said with a smile, it then dawned on him that they had passed the test and all they needed to do was get to the tower.

"That's GREAT Hina-chan! You're the best Naruto!" He said as he was hugging Hinata, she was in heaven at the moment. So Naruto tell us how you got it.

Naruto went into the story about what all had happened when he was with Team 8, when he finished Arashi had a worried look on his face. Something about those events sounded odd, very odd. So he figured he would try to ask Yondaime about it. 'Hey Yondaime-sama, what do you think about that?'

"**Well it doesn't sound good at all, that man was Orochimaru, one of the Sannin like my sensei. Anything that he is involved in you can always bet that it is something bad."**

'Okay thanks, you can really be helpful.' He then just heard Arashi scoff at him and go back to what ever he was doing. It felt like he was moving around some stuff, so Arashi decided to cut him off for a bit. "So then what should we do? Head to the tower now and finish this test already?"

Arashi stood up but suddenly fell back down on top of Hinata, Naruto just started laughing at the position they were in. Hinata was sitting down and Arashi had landed where his head was laying on he lap like he had fainted or something like Hinata does sometimes. "Well its looks like you're still recovering from that chakra exhaustion; also it is kind of late. Maybe we should get going in to morning."

Arashi then managed to get up off Hinata's lap with a blush that was rivaling the one plastered on Hinata as well. "Yeah that does sound like a good idea. So let's get some sleep, we don't know what we might run into on our way to the tower tomorrow."

Almost instantly Naruto dove into his sleeping bag and passed out into a deep sleep within about five minutes. Arashi and Hinata had always been amazed at how fast that boy got to sleep, on their longer missions it always puzzled them how he did it. So they normally talked for a little bit before going to sleep themselves. "Anou...t-thank you f-for saving me Arashi-kun. I-I'm sorry I w-wasn't strong enough t-to help out."

Arashi then turned and looked her straight into the eyes with compassion and care, and dare she think…love. "Hina-chan, don't say that you were the strong one. After I killed those men you were the one who comforted me and made me realize that I had done it for the right reasons. I thought I was a monster for what I did but you turned those thoughts around to thoughts of pride for defending someone I care deeply for."

'He cares deeply for me? I need to tell him how I feel!' "Y-Your welcome Arashi-kun, b-but there is something I w-want to tell you."

"What is it Hina-chan?" He looked at her questioningly; she had started to turn very red and was getting more nervous by the second. He could tell this was something that was hard for her to say and he was really wondering what it was.

"Anou…I-I j-j-just wanted t-to t-tell you t-that I-I-I-I l-lo-l-l…." Her head looked down at the floor when she realized she couldn't do it so she tried to save herself. "I-I l-like y-your n-new hair. It goes w-well with y-your e-eyes." She said with a smile.

'Oh that's all she wanted to say, I thought for a second there she was going to tell something else that probably would have been big. Then I could have told her how I feel about her. Oh well I'm probably imagining things.' He was trying really hard to block out the sounds of Yondaime cracking up and his denseness when he said. "Uhh, thanks Hina-chan. Well I like it too I guess, but I think we should get to sleep."

She agreed and sighed knowing that she had dodged a bullet there; they said good night and went to sleep. Unknown to both of them, Naruto had been awake and was cursing in his mind that she hadn't told him, he knew they both loved each other and didn't get how Arashi could be so thick headed.

The two love sick genin drifted off to sleep to both have dreams in which they both confessed their love to each other to find the other loved them back. It was a very good dream for both of them.

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"Hokage-sama, if I may have a minute of your time." Asked the white robe clad man.

"Ahh, Hyuuga-sama and what do I own the pleasure of your visit to?" Asked Sandime politely even though he never personally liked Hiashi that much.

"Actually, it is about Hinata-chan." He took on a serious look and handed a paper to Sandaime. "I need you to approve this Hokage-sama."

Sandaime's eyes were lit up with surprise at the document in front of him. "Hiashi-sama don't you think that it's a little early for this? Don't you think…"

"I believe it's best for the clan. Now if you'll excuse me I have other matters to attend to." The Hyuuga Head then left the office and made his way back to the Hyuuga compound with a slight smirk on his face.

'Great now I have to deal with this now to and just after I was summoned to the Forest of Death tower for something urgent. Oh well it can't be helped.' He scribbled his signature on the document making it official. He then had his secretary send a note to Hiashi telling him to keep this a secret until Sandaime thought it was the right time to make it public. He then made his way to the tower to have a talk with Anko.

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Arashi woke up from his blissful dream about Hinata to find something warm and soft next to him. He slowly looked over to see Hinata cuddling up to him with her head on his shoulder and her arm draped over his body. He almost instantly went through about three shades of red and he watched he begin to wake up. 'Oh crap! She is going to think that I moved her or something, CRAP!'

Hinata's eyes fluttered open to see that she was on Arashi and her arm was over him. She instantly shot up from embarrassment and blushed a deep red. "G-Gomen n-n-nasai Arashi-kun. I-I didn't m-mean t-to end u-up like that, I m-m-must have m-moved in my s-sleep."

Arashi could tell how flustered she was and was relieved that she didn't think he had done it. He was about to say something back but then Naruto burst out in laughter. "Shut up Naruto-baka!! You're not helping here!" Arashi instantly shut up realizing that he almost let it slip. All the while trying to tune out Yondaime's snickers in the background. 'Hey Yondaime, unless you need to tell me something or I call out can you please just cut the connection.'

"**Aww, you're no fun. Whatever, but I'm still going to watch. It's hilarious!"** Said the Hokage as Arashi felt the connection cut off.

"Whatever Naruto, we need to get to the tower do let's just forget about this happening." Arashi said with a blush when he looked down at Hinata who was still tinted dark pink.

'Wait, why is he blushing? I'm the one who should be embarrassed?' "O-Okay Arashi-kun, l-let's make o-our way to the tower."

"That's the spirit Hina-chan, unlike our goofy Naruto over there." They then made their was outside and leapt into the trees. Arashi really just wanted to get away from the battle field that they had just left. As they were jumping from tree to tree Arashi suddenly felt himself gain 80 pounds in a second. I completely made him miss the branch he was jumping too, which resulted in him falling about 50 feet into a giant pile of dead leaves. "WHAT THE HELL!?!?!" He looked down to see that his bracers were glowing, when they stopped he moved around a bit to find that they had increased without him doing anything to them. 'Yondaime! What did you do?'

"**What? Me? Ooooh nothing major. I just kicked up your bracers another 20 pounds, now they are at 100 pounds a piece. You had gotten used to the old weight so I decided to take it up a notch. I did design them after all; I know how to control them." **He said with a laugh that had Arashi cursing him.

'Well warn me next time, I could have been seriously hurt!' He didn't hear anything back so he figured Yondaime had got the message. Arashi jumped up back to where the others were watching wondering what had caused his fall.

"Arashi, what the hell happened to you? Thinking about something?" Naruto said with a wink that Arashi got and started blushing slightly.

Arashi then started to laugh and rub his neck in a very Naruto like fashion. "Well you see I increased my bracers again but I didn't think it would be so sudden so I kinda missed the branch." Hinata started to giggle at him. "Not you too Hina-chan, oh well looks like I get to look like the idiot of the group. Let's get moving again."

After about 30 minutes of going through the trees Naruto had them stop. "W-What is it Naruto-kun?" He pointed off to their left and motioned for Hinata to take a look. She activated her Byakugan and saw a team of leaf genin taking on a grass team. Quickly the leaf ninja were taken down and ruthlessly killed by one of the grass ninjas, she was horrified that they were taking such pleasure in the act of killing.

"Guys, you stay here I want to take care of these guys. They don't deserve to be called human for the way they are acting." Naruto said gritting his teeth together.

"But Naruto, we shouldn't confront them we already passes this potion of the test. Plus you could get really hurt down there. If you insist on doing this at least have us help."

"No, I need to do this alone Arashi. Plus if I'm going to be Hokage I'm going to need to be able to hand out punishments. I'll start with these guys. I'm not going to kill them, just beat the crap out of them."

Arashi couldn't say no to that, also he was sure that Naruto was feeling left behind in power so he needed to prove to himself that he is strong. "Just don't over do it, if you need help please call for it."

Naruto nodded and dashed into the clearing, he stopped standing over the corpses. "Hey Asshole!! You dare do this to my fellow Konoha Shinobi and you're going to pay!"

The main ninja turned to look at Naruto and then started laughing very evilly. "And what are you going to do about it shrimp? I dare you to try something; I'll just add you to my list of victims."

"All right then let's go freak!" Naruto then jumped high in the air towards the three ninjas. They looked relatively normal, normal street cloths, nothing that really stood out. The only thing that identified them as ninja was the forehead protector with the grass emblem on it. As Naruto came down from his leap he spun as he hit the ground, taking the leader by surprise he swept his feet out from under him. Shifting quickly Naruto launched himself at the ninja when he stabilized himself.

"Doton: Earth Wall Jutsu!" The grass leader yelled as he shoved his hands into the ground, making a huge wall appear in front of him and his team. Not half a second after the wall went up did he feel an extreme pain in his shoulder. He turned to see a kunai sticking out of the back of his shoulder with Naruto smiling at him. "You little brat!!" Was all he could get out before Naruto caught him in the arm with the injured shoulder with a hard kick, snapping the bone underneath where he hit in many pieces.

'That was fast, faster than I've known Naruto to be.' Thought Arashi as he watched the grass ninja fall to the ground screaming in pain.

After a few seconds he stood back up and got into a taijutsu stance he could use with only one arm. Naruto smiled as he knew this guy was done for, in a blink of an eye he moved to where the guy was. Delivering a lightning fast drop-kick to the man's leg there was a sickening snap accompanied by another scream of intense pain. He was done and wasn't getting back up for quite a while. "That is what you get for killing Konoha Shinobi!!" He knew the other two were charging at him now so when he was hit with about 5 shuriken he puffed away into a log.

"Replacement! Where did he go?" Yelled the shorter of the two.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!!" The four clones and the real Naruto ran at the pair from the woods, only to stop about 7 feet away from the ninja and go into some hand signs. "Let's try out my theory! Futon: Great Tornado Jutsu!" Five separate tornados started to spin around each of the Narutos. What happened next surprised Naruto because it actually worked. The convergence point of the five tornados happened to be where the two ninja were standing, with the different directions the wind was blowing to started to make wind bladed when the chakra influenced wind made contact with a wind going the opposite direction. Soon the there were many wind blades going back and forth against the two ninja. They were soon covered with slight to deep gashes all over their bodies.

When Naruto dispelled the clones and the tornados the two ninja fell to the ground unconscious and with numerous slices all over them. 'It actually worked! Now if I can work that concept into a smaller more condensed form I can come up with a really powerful jutsu!' Naruto to thought as he walked over to the still screaming leader of the team. "Now I hope you and your team mates have learned not to kill people for fun!" He said as he raised his leg and delivered a hard kick to the side of his face, effectively and painfully knocking him out.

Arashi and Hinata were shocked at the tornado concept that Naruto had come up with. 'Well he has always been good at Futon jutsus.' Thought Arashi as they both leapt down to him. Naruto then tossed Arashi another pair of scrolls with a smile. "Naruto we don't need these, but it will cause the competition to dwindle. That really was an amazing concept you came up with! Also I'm amazed that you can move that fast with your bracers on!"

Naruto then started laughing and rubbing his neck. "Well about that, I kind of took the weight off yesterday when I went looking for you guys and forgot to put it back on." He said with a smile.

Arashi went over and bopped him on his head. "Naruto you BAKA!! You're supposed to always have them activated!"

"Fine I'll put them back on!" He did a hand sign and said. "100 pounds!" He then visibly slouched, then moved around a little bit and did a couple stretches. "Okay I'm good, let's get to the tower!" Hinata almost fell over from the comment that he was okay after a few stretches after adding 400 pounds to his body. She then realized that Arashi had the same weight on as well, she felt very same knowing that her two team mates were so powerful. It made her feel like with their help she could get stronger.

Arashi noticed Hinata's smile and couldn't help but smile, she was his precious person even if she didn't know yet. It was the thought of protecting those close to him that drove Arashi to become stronger so he could protect them from anything. "Hey Hina-chan, lets get going." He said with a smile as they rushed to the tower with two sets of scrolls.

After hiding out in front of the tower for an hour they saw that no on was with in distance to get them so they dashed for the door and walked through the wide red doors leading to the tower. When they came in they saw a large scroll hanging on the wall. It seemed to be a poem written by Sandaime; it also seemed that they were needed to open both of the scrolls at the same time.

Naruto and Arashi nodded at each other as they opened one set of the scrolls and laid them down on top of each other. In a huge puff of smoke someone appeared, when the smoke began to clear they easily saw the scar across his nose and knew who it was. "Iruka-sensei!!" All three yelled, well Hinata didn't really yell just said it louder than normal. "What are you doing here?" Asked Hinata struggling not to stutter. Arashi had commented on it before he passed out and called her Hina-chan for the first time, she was going to try really hard to change that habit for him.

Arashi looked over at her when she didn't stutter and smiled, causing her to blush. Iruka saw this and remembered the way they always acted back at the academy. 'They have changed and gotten so much stronger, but some things always stay the same.' "Well I'm here to tell you that you have passed the second exam, all that is left is the third test. I'm very proud of you three; I would like to treat you all to Ichiraku's when this is all over!"

Naruto's eyes went wide and threw himself on Iruka giving him a huge bear hug. "Thank you Iruka-sensei!!' Iruka then went down because of all the weight Naruto was carrying.

"By Kami Naruto!! What on earth do you have that weighs so much!?!" She said as he shoved the boy off him. Naruto then explained the bracers to his sensei saying that it was a secret so that he couldn't tell anyone else about it. "Well that's amazing Naruto, also somewhat fitting he said with a smile." He then realized what he had said when he saw their questioning faces. "Oh n-never mind I said that, well you guys had better get some rest the exam ends tomorrow morning so you all have a day to relax and recuperate before the meeting with all the passing teams in the stadium."

Iruka turned to leave when Arashi shouted at him and tossed him the other two scrolls. Iruka was surprised that they had managed to get two sets, but after Naruto explained about the grass ninja he understood and was amazed at Naruto's power. He would have to get a squad to go collect them. He bid them farewell and disappeared in a puff of smoke. "So what do you guys want to do? We have quite some time before the meeting." Asked the Himura, Naruto shrugged and Hinata just had a blank look on her face.

"Well I know that I'm going to go see who else is here. You guys want to come with?"

"Nah, I'm going to go find something to eat. Do you want to come with me Hina-chan?" Said Arashi, Hinata had gone up about to an 8 on the Hinata Blush Scale. She couldn't find words so she just nodded. They both wandered off to try and find some food with Hinata looking very happy.

When they were out of sight Naruto hung his head and said. "Man are they hopeless, everything would be perfect if one of them just said they loved the other! Oh well I'll have to egg Arashi on until he does it, a man should be the one who says it first." He then started to wander around the tower looking for people he knew. After a couple minutes he saw the sand team sitting down and drinking some tea, he just gave Kankuro a very cold look and shuddered when he saw the look in Gaara's eyes. They seemed somewhat familiar to him; he only gave it a passing thought as he continued on.

He eventually found Team 10 and had a nice chat with them about what had happened with the grass ninja, he was more or less bragging but he didn't care. He decided that he would get out of there; there was only so much he could stand being around them because of the aura of love that radiated from Ino and Chouji. It made him a little depressed that he didn't have anyone to love. 'But who would love me, with what I have inside of me.' He looked down at his stomach with a sad look.

The next person he bumped into would be the highlight of his day. He turned a corner in the tower to see Kakashi-sensei, he was about to run up to him when he noticed someone else was there. He sneaked closer to see that it was Anko; he saw that Kakashi had his arm around her and was whispering things in her ear. She was blushing rather noticeably and was occasionally giggling at whatever he was saying. Then he put his other hand on her thigh and rubbed it a little, a small moan escaped Anko's mouth. "HEY KAKASHI-SENSEI!! Having fun with Anko-san?" Yelled Naruto, Kakashi nearly fell off of the bench he was sitting on.

"N-N-Naruto!?!" He looked rather embarrassed and was blushing like Hinata; it was a very funny sight to the blonde. He couldn't keep his laughter in, it just spilled out very loudly. "Naruto you better not tell anyone about this!" Anko looked very embarrassed as well but she just went over and slugged Naruto just like Sakura had done so many times before.

Still laughing but in pain Naruto struggled to regain his breath. "Kakashi-sensei, this is just too good to be true! I wonder what the others will think?" He said in a very sly way. Kakashi's visible eye flared up at the realization that Naruto might spill his little secret about Anko to everyone, they had been so good keeping it a secret for about 2 months but if it got out he would be ridiculed nonstop by Asuma! Naruto saw what his sensei's reaction was and came up with a plan. "I'll keep you're little secret…on one condition."

"What is it Naruto?? I'll do anything!!! Even treat you to ramen once a week for 2 years!!" He said trying to sway Naruto that way.

"No, I think I can do better than that." Kakashi was now very worried. "If you're late to anything that Arashi, Hinata-chan, or I are at or a part of…I tell. Everyone I see." He saw Kakashi start to freak out. "I'll go to Asuma first!" That pushed Kakashi over the line.

He fell to his knees and held his head as he threw his head back. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" After a few seconds of the situation seeping in he said. "Fine, you win Naruto. I'll be…" He made a large gulp. "On…time" He then hung his head in defeat and made his way to get a drink, a strong drink.

Naruto couldn't help but laugh, then he realized that Anko was laughing just as loud with him. "That was great kid! He takes pride in being late; you really know where to hit them where it hurts. This is going to be hilarious!!" She then gave him a slap on the back and left.

Naruto then left and decided to go to bed, it was getting late and he couldn't wait for the next day.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The seven teams that had passed the test were standing with their team mates in a large arena with all of the Jonin, Proctors, and the Hokage standing in front of them. There was Team 7, Team 8, Team 10, Team Gai, Kabuto's team, the Sand team, and the Sound team. Everyone of the non-rookie people present were very surprised that every rookie team passed.

Sandaime stepped forward and began to speak to the genin. "First I would like to congratulate each and every one of you for bringing pride to your villages. But I also have some bad news, depending on how you look at it." Everyone listened intently to what the elderly Hokage was about to say. "Because of the rather large number of candidates who passed the second exam, we are being forced to hold a preliminary round to decide who goes on to the final round.

"HOW COULD THAT NOT BE BAD NEWS!?!" Yelled an angry Suna blonde woman.

"Well if you were looking at it as an opportunity to scout out your opponents for the next round and fine tuning your skills, then it could be good news. Or if you just like to fight." He gave Naruto a glance to see he was smiling in agreement with him, as was Arashi. 'Those boys are something, I'll give them that.'

Suddenly a Chunin appeared in front of the genin. "Hokage-sama 'cough' I, Hayate Gekkeo, the Proctor for the third exam 'cough' would like to explain the rules to the genin."

"Very well Hayate-san." The Hokage backed away to stand in line with the Jonin.

"As you have been told there is to be a preliminary exam to weed out candidates. Now I will get to the 'cough' rules of this exam. From now on you will be scored on an individual basis; even if your team members fail you can still move on. This exam will be 'cough cough' an individual combat exam. There are no rules except to listen to me; all calls made by me are final. You will fight either to when one combatant gives up, dies, or I deem is unable to continue. We don't want unnecessary death so I will try to step in before that happens."

Most of the genin present liked the sound of this test. Only Hinata and Sakura were having doubts. Arashi leaned in close to Hinata seeing her doubting herself and put a hand on her shoulder and said. "Don't worry Hina-chan, I believe in you. You're strong; don't let anyone tell you otherwise." He didn't know how much it helped her, he just knew it helped.

"Now before we commence I have to ask if any of you are unable or unwilling to continue. If you decide to quit 'cough' your team will not be affected, if you desire to quit raise your hand and leave." All the genin were thinking how they didn't think no one would quit this far into the exam. Little did they know that Kabuto was thinking exactly that, he was just about to raise his head when he looked over at the Sound Jonin that was there. The Jonin slightly shook his head in a distinct 'no', and Kabuto put his hand down with a smirk on his face.

After about a minute and a small discussion between Sasuke and Sakura, Hay ate got their attention with a cough. "Good it seems like everyone is willing to continue, now bring your attention to 'cough cough' the screen on there." He pointed to a giant screen on the wall. "The fighters will be picked at random, now for the first fight."

The screen light up and all the names of the combatants scrolled through until it displayed two names. "Sasuke Uchiha vs. Yoroi Akado"

"Everyone who is not participating in the fight 'cough' please make your way to the balcony."

As everyone was moving towards it, Kurenai stopped next to Sasuke. "I would refrain from using the Sharingan here; it might activate that curse seal. If that happens I WILL stop the match, and you will fail." She said very menacingly.

'They know, crap! Let's just get this over with.'

Meanwhile up in the stands, everyone was anxious to see everyone else's abilities and how strong they had become. "Fighters ready…'cough'…Begin!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Okay so finally we get to the prelims!! It should be fun to write. I'm actually going on spring break stating on Friday so expect a bunch of updates!!!**

**Noooow it is time for the first poll to decide something!!! Tell me what animal you want Arashi to learn how to summon after the prelims!!! Any animal you think would work with him, no animals that used in the series though. Okay those are your guide lines. The poll will be open until I get to him learning the Summoning Jutsu!!**

**SOOOOOO Review!!!! It will make me write faster too!!!**


	8. The Preliminaries Begin!

**Review Reply:**

**Quicksliv:** Well so far you're the only person to give a vote for the summons. So there will be maybe two chapters until I decide, but I did like that idea.

**OK HERE IS THE DEAL I ALREADY HAVE THE NEXT CHAPTER WRITTEN, BUT I'M NOT GOING TO POST IT UNTILL I GET AT LEAST 10 MORE REVIEWS AND VOTES ON WHAT ARASHI'S SUMMON SHOULD BE!!**

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"The first match is between Sasuke Uchiha and Yoroi Akado…fighters ready…Begin!!" Hayate said as he stepped back to give the two genin room to fight properly.

The Uchiha heir dashed forward at a fast pace and gave a series of kicks and punches at the other man. They were easily deflected and dodged by the more experienced and larger Yoroi. He jumped back and did a quick hand sign, suddenly his hands glowed blue and he rushed at Sasuke.

With his first sweep of his hands Sasuke countered it into an arm bar, looking to snap his arm and forcing him to give up he didn't expect what happened next. Sasuke found Yoroi's hand gripping his chest but he felt like all his strength was leaving him. Quickly Sasuke got out of the situation knowing what was going on, and panting heavily. "So you figured out what I can do eh? Looks like it's just now getting interesting, I can now suck out all of your chakra!"

Rushing at Sasuke he dove into him and tackled him to the ground grasping his throat with his glowing hand. Sasuke was in trouble, if he didn't break out soon he would loose all his chakra and the curse seal might activate. "Sasuke-kun!!!" He heard coming from his pink haired team mate.

Quickly he smacked Yoroi's hand away from his throat and stumbled away. "So this is all the _great_ Uchiha clan has to offer? Pinky back there would have been a harder opponent." Suddenly Sasuke's eyes flared at being called weaker than Sakura.

He went through what possibilities he could use, then he remembered the move Lee had used on him to utterly embarrass him in front of his team and Arashi's. He smirked as he appeared beneath Yoroi in a blink of an eye, knocking him high into the air. Then very quickly he shot up and was following underneath Yoroi. "Dancing Leaf Shadow eh? What are you going to do now?"

Just as he said that the curse mark activated on Sasuke, he was met with waves of pain from it. 'No, I won't let this thing control me! I will win by MYSELF!!' He then forcibly pushed the mark back, deactivating it.

'Amazing he pushed it back with just his will!' Thought Sandaime.

"Now that that is out of the way, I'll continue. I'll be honest I sort of borrowed that last move but from here on it's all me." Quickly he brought a leg around to kick him but was easily blocked; he then used the area opened by the block to land a punch as he rotated to land another kick. The series of attacks continued as they neared the ground, just as they landed Sasuke came down with a heel kick viciously just as he made contact with the ground, making the force of the blow immense. "Lion's Rendan!!"

Sasuke was flung off and landed about 10 feet away. Both fighters seemed to be down, Yoroi was out cold but Sasuke was very slowly getting up. "Winner…Sasuke Uchiha."

Sakura erupted in applause, while Kakashi looked over at Kurenai asking a silent question. She nodded as he puffed away to catch Sasuke with his knee as he fell back to pass out from the fight. "Kakashi?"

He leaned in really close and whispered to the boy. "You need to come with me so we can seal up that curse mark." Sasuke looked at him with an expression that just screamed 'but I want to see the other fights' "No buts about it, we have already given you too much slack." With that the two disappeared in a puff of smoke as the screen lit up again.

"And the next 'cough' fighters will be…" The screen went through the names. "Zaku Arumi vs. Shino Aburame"

Most of the people who know the fighters were looking in with great interest. Not many people had seen what Shino could do. So they were egger to see him in action. But the match up wasn't very promising; Zaku had both of his arms in slings still from when Sasuke had pulled both arms from their sockets, dislocating them.

When they were told to begin Zaku surprised everyone but pulling out his left arm from its sling, he then blasted Shino with an air current. Knocking him back, but when Shino stood back up it looked like he had bugs crawling out of him. Upon further investigation on Hinata's part they learned that he did indeed have thousands of bugs crawling around inside of him.

A little while longer Shino had caught Zaku in a trap where he had to decide ether to attack Shino to his left or the swarm of bugs that had trapped him to his right. Shino calmly gave him the option to quit and urged him to take it. Zaku only smirked and said, "Like you said Bug boy, it's always good to have a trump card!" He then lifted his other arm to the bugs and prepared to fire his air cannons. "Slicing Sound Waves!!" He yelled, but no air came, he then looked down at his arms to see them swelling. All of a sudden in a blast of chakra his left arm blew off at the elbow and his right arm got a giant hole in it at the elbow. Zaku screamed in absolute pain at losing his arm, Hayate then quickly called the match as the medic Nin took Zaku back to the medical rooms.

Shino calmly walked back up to his team mates and said to Kiba. "Now just make sure you win too."

"That is why you creep me out Shino!! Also did you have to blow off his arm?"

"Well it's his fault them ruptured, he should have quit when I offered it to him." Said the Aburame.

The screen lit up once again, and scrolled through the names of the remaining fighters. 'Kankuro vs. Misumi Tsurugi' the two men made their way down to the center of the arena with smirks on their faces. When they both reached the center Hayate motioned for the match, Misumi got into a battle stance while Kankuro smirked and pulled the thing wrapped up on his back off and held it up on the side of him. "Let me give you some advice, give up. I really don't feel like killing today."

Misumi simple laughed as he rushed at Kankuro with a punch, it was easily stopped with Kankuro's palm. But Misumi smirked as his arm suddenly wrapped around Kankuro's arm and snaked up and held him where he was. He then slipped behind the sand ninja and wrapped the rest of his arms around him, holding him in place with his arm around Kankuro's neck being able to snap it at a moments notice. "I don't know what you have in those bandages but I'm not going to find out. As you have noticed I can make my body stretch and move around by dislocating my joints. You might as well give up, the more you struggle the tighter I get. So give up or I'll snap your neck."

Kankuro simply laughed at the fact of him giving up. "You're making me mad, now you're going to die." Then there was a loud snap and Kankuro's body went limp. Everyone gasped at the sight of the fight below them.

"Too bad eh didn't surrender." Misumi calmly said, but then there was some more cracking from Kankuro's body and some substance started falling from his face. Suddenly his face spun around in an inhuman way, showing Misumi a sickening smile and half of his face missing. What was showing was an odd looking eye with a brown face. Then six arms shot out of 'Kankuro's' body and wrapped around Misumi, then that started to tighten and loud snaps were heard. "Y-You're a Puppet Master!!!"

With that the wrappings that were on the ground opened up in a spiral to reveal the real Kankuro, with chakra coming out of his fingers and attaching to the puppet. "You know I think I'll break every bone in your body, just imagine how flexible you will be after that." He then moved some of his fingers in a pattern. "Karasu, constrict!"

Screams from Misumi rang out through the arena as the puppet latched on to him began to get tighter and tighter. Everyone could easily hear his bones snapping and Kankuro laughing. "I give up!!" Was what Misumi screamed amidst the pain that he was going through.

"Winner…Kankuro." Hayate said as he made the sand ninja release Misumi from Karasu. He smirked as he re wrapped his puppet and made his was back to his team. Mean while Misumi was moved to the medical rooms in critical condition.

"Geeze Kankuro, did you have to draw out that match like that?" Asked his blonde sister.

"Well I wanted to at least have a little fun, get off my back Temari." As he said that he looked over and winked at Kiba who was still in shock at the brutality that Kankuro used.

"Those sand guys creep me out, almost as much as you do Shino!" Said the Inuzuka as the screen lit up once again.

They then looked up at the screen as it read 'Sakura Haruno vs. Ino Yamanaka' "Good luck Sakura-san." He said calmly.

"Don't worry Shino-kun; I'm going to whip the floor with that Ino-pig!! I'm going to show her how my Sasuke-kun is better than her beloved Chouji!" She said as she dashed over to the Proctor.

"Hey Shino, how does her and Ino fighting show if Sasuke or Chouji is better? It makes no sense!!" Said Kina after their female team mate had left.

"I have no idea, we may never figure out women. Especially that one lets just stay out of it. I don't feel like getting hit by her today." He said with a shudder, in truth Sakura was one of the few things that Shino was afraid of. Her and a can of Raid, Kiba once chased Shino all over Konoha with a can once for giving Akamaru fleas.

"Sakura Haruno, Ino Yamanaka. Are you both ready and prepared for this fight?" Asked Hayate, as they both nodded. "Then begin."

Both of the women didn't make a move, they were just standing there looking at each other. "You know what this battle represents don't you Ino-pig."

"Anou...well if I was still going after that emotionless Sasuke then I guess it would be a battle for who deserves him. But I really don't want anything to do with him so I don't get what you're talking about Sakura." Said Ino, trying to put the past behind her and regain a friend.

"Then you're even dumber than you look Ino-pig. This battle represents how either Sasuke-kun or your Chouji are better." She said with a smile.

"Sakura that is retarded. How does us fighting have anything to do with Sasuke or Chouji-kun's skills?"

"Well to put it in a way you can understand, we are going to test our abilities against each other. We have fine tuned our abilities in the presence of the people we love; Sasuke-kun for me and Chouji for you. We are going to see if the support we got and the drive we had to do well in front of their eyes have paid off and given us better skills. If the love you share with Chouji has produced a better ninja or the love I give to Sasuke." Sakura said as she got into a battle stance.

She suddenly rushed at Ino throwing a kick that was easily blocked and dodged, Ino leapt back but Sakura launched three kunai at the blonde. Ino grabbed one of them out from the air and threw it right back at Sakura. Lucky for Sakura she had thrown another kunai, so they both collided in mid air and flew off to opposite sides of the arena. "Bunshin Jutsu!" Sakura said as two other ones appeared, dashing at Ino while weaving between the images she managed to get a strike on Ino making her fly back.

They continued with only taijutsu for a while, they were throwing furious kicks and punches at each other. But none of them were landing, finally Ino managed to land a punch into Sakura's gut making her stumble for a second. Ino moved to slug her directly in the face, but at the last moment she saw an image of Sakura when they were younger and still friends. With milliseconds left before impact Ino opened her fist and hit Sakura with an open handed slap.

Every one was watching in awe as Ino slapped her opponent. Sakura was perhaps more shocked than anyone else. "Why?" Was all that escaped her lips but it was in a whisper.

"Because this is pointless, we were the best of friends! But I we were stupid enough to let a boy come between us. I know I was stupid back then when I decided to like Sasuke. I liked his looks only, not his personality…not his heart." She looked up at Chouji to see him mouthing 'I love you' to her. She smiled and continued on with her speech with her friend. "Sasuke was just a cute boy who didn't want anything from anyone. You need to realize that Sakura, I don't want to see you get hurt when he does something."

Sakura was for once actually listening to Ino, she could tell that the things she was saying were from her heart and that she wanted to repair their friendship. "Ino, I don't know what to say…"

"Listen Sakura, I'm happy now. I found someone who loves me for me and who I love more than anything. I just hope that you realize that that person for you is not Sasuke, he is an emotionless person who only thinks about himself." Sakura then looked at the ground acknowledging the truth behind the words. "So I only have one thing to ask you Sakura-chan, can we be friends again?" Ino asked hopefully.

Sakura just looked up at the person who had been her rival for years and only one answer came to her mouth. "Of course Ino-chan, I would like that very much."

They both were quite for a minute or so just looking at each other in the eyes. "Umm mar you two just 'cough' going to stand there or what? Do you have anything to say?"

The two girls just keep looking at each other in the eyes when they both thought the same thing at the same time and spoke up. "Proctor I give up." They both said at the same time.

"WHAT!?!?!" Screamed Naruto from the stands.

"Since both competitors have given up we will move on." He said as the two girls moved to the stairs going up to the watching areas.

"Why did you quit too?" Asked Ino.

"Well I just got back my best friend, and I'm sure as hell not going to loose her over a silly fight." She said with a smile. "Hey, I want to thank you for what you said. I really am happy for you and Chouji; I wish I can find someone like that. Who knows maybe Sasuke-kun will come around." She said with a laugh.

"Yeah well I do remember someone telling you that they would protect you with their life and already have." Ino said with a smirk, watching Sakura search her memory to come up with who she meant.

Sakura tuned her gave over next to Naruto to see the one and only Rock lee talking with the blonde about something to do with weights. Sakura sighed as she went over to her team and Ino to hers. "Lee-kun." Sakura whispered as she walked back to Shino and Kiba.

"Well on to the next match." The screen lit up once again and cycled through the names of the remaining genin to land on. 'TenTen vs. Temari'

The match was over almost as quickly as it had begun. TenTen went through all of her weapons jutsu only to have Temari knock them out of the way with her fan. It ended painfully with TenTen falling on top of Temari's fan in a very painful looking position. "Winner…Temari."

Temari shoved TenTen off of her fan and onto the ground; she turned and walked away towards her team. Just as she was about to get there she turned around to address TenTen, who was barely conscious. "Little girls who play around with knives and have no talent shouldn't pretend they are ninja. You're worthless!" She spat at the defeated girl.

Several people were fuming at her comment, but all for different reasons. First there was Lee who was furious that Temari would not only insult his team mate but call into question her talents and hard work. Then there was Arashi, who couldn't stand people treating others like dirt and feeling they are above other people. Then there was Neji, no one would have noticed it but internally he was screaming at Temari for showing such disrespect for someone he cared for. But he would never bring this to people's attention, so he just looked as clod as ever.

Suddenly the damn broke and Arashi went off the handle on her. "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!?! She has worked hard to get where she is, and is extremely talented!! How DARE you treat others like trash, you should treat others with respect, and I think Lee will agree with me!" He said pointing to Lee who was fuming like a tea kettle.

"Yosh!! You have taken the words right out of my mouth Arashi-kun!! The Spirit of Youth burns brightly inside of you!" He then turned to Temari. "But he is right none the less; TenTen-chan did her best. You need to respect her efforts!"

She simply scoffed at them and continued towards Kankuro and Gaara. "Well now 'cough' that that's over we can move along." The screen light up again and selected the fighters. Hinata let a smile cross her face at the names up on the screen. 'Arashi Himura vs. Kabuto Yakushi' she couldn't wait to have everyone see Arashi's skills, for them to see the person she was so in love with.

"G-Good luck Arashi-kun." She said quietly.

"I will Hina-chan; I'm going to show these fools why you shouldn't mess with Team 7!" He said with a grin to his team mate.

Once again Kabuto looked up at the Sound Jonin who had just came back from somewhere, the Jonin mouthed a word to Kabuto who nodded at walked calmly down to the fighting area.

Suddenly Kakashi poofed into existence right next to them. "Yo."

"Kakashi-sensei!! Where the hell were you? You're lucky you got here right now, Arashi is just about to fight that Kabuto guy." Said the blonde boy in front of his.

"Kabuto you say…" He took a hard look at Kabuto as he walked calmly down the stairs to the arena while pushing his glasses up. "Arashi, there is something off about this guy. Don't take him lightly, I would suggest to try and take him out quickly. But do not, and I repeat DO NOT use any of your Kekkei Genkai abilities in this fight." Kakashi said rather seriously, surprising his team.

Arashi then took on a look of seriousness that had Hinata weak at the knees. "Of course Kakashi-sensei, I will make you proud." He said with a smile as he made his way down to the waiting Kabuto. 'This is going to be fun; I can show everyone what I can do. I feel sorry for Kabuto though.' The Himura thought with a smirk.

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**Okay I was going to make the prelims 1 ch. but I'm going to make it two so that hopefully I can get more votes on Arashi's summons creature. SO REVIEW!!! AND TELL ME YOUR IDEA FOR WHAT ARASHI'S SUMMON SHOULD BE!! Next chapter should be out in a day or two. So REVIEW!!!**


	9. The Team 7 Battles

Review Reply;

**Review Reply;**

**Quicksliv:** Yeah you are really the only person who really reviews on the chapters, also I'm betting that I am going to go with you're suggestion for the summons I actually got another vote for that animal too. So yeah it sucks that I don't get any reviews.

**Hey people I don't get why you don't review!! There should still be a couple of chapters till the summon if final so vote in a review and tell me what you like about that story!!**

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"Arashi Himura and Kabuto Yakushi, are you two ready for this fight?" Asked Hayate to the two fighters standing in front of him. They both nodded and Kabuto pushed his glasses up and smirked. "Okay then let the sixth match Begin!"

They both got in fighting stances and looked each other in the eye. "You know Arashi; I have heard great things about you. I am particularly interested in how you got to go on an A-rank mission as a genin, a rookie no less. But also I want to test your power with my own."

"Well I don't think you're going to get to see that much because I'm going to end this quickly. I have gotten a bad vibe from you ever since we met, prepare yourself Kabuto."

Arashi suddenly disappeared from the sight of the genin, only the Jonin and Lee could actually see what he was doing. Of course this excluded Kabuto, who was wondering if it was an invisibility jutsu. 'It has to be some sort of jutsu; no genin can move that fast without a jutsu.' Suddenly He was hit hard with an upwards kick to his chest.

Kabuto went flying into the air, he was desperately trying to find Arashi but to no avail. Then almost as fast as the first kick he was hit with a jaw shattering punch that sent Kabuto shooting into the walls of the arena, leaving a small crater where he hit it.

"That is impossible! He is as fast as I am with my we…never mind" Lee said but clamping his mouth shut so no one would find out he had weights on. He then looked up to his sensei and asked. "Gai-sensei how is it possible for him to have that kind of speed? I hardly think anyone can train as hard as I do!"

"Now Lee, don't get jealous. You will just have to show them what real speed is in your match." He said patting Lee on his back.

Kabuto was still in the crater and was trying to move out but he was badly damaged so far from Arashi's attacks. He already had a couple broken ribs and a shattered jaw. He quickly focused his chakra to heal his ribs as fast as he could. When he was done he moved to get out of the wall, but as soon as he moved forward he saw Arashi appear in front of him faster than he could see. "Raiton: Lightning Laser Jutsu!" He said as the blue lighting gathered on his index finger that was pointed out like a gun. His finger with the jutsu being held back on it was pressing against Kabuto's face, right between his eyes. "I suggest you give up, I'm holding this back but if I fire it off you die instantly."

"Mhmh mhgimv mump!!" Kabuto tried to say but with his jaw in the state it is in, it came out inaudible.

"That is enough, I am calling this match. There will be no unnecessary death while I 'cough' am the Proctor! Winner…Arashi Himura." Said Hayate as Arashi dispelled his jutsu and stepped away to wave up at Hinata and Naruto.

Arashi quickly jumped back up to the platform right next to Hinata. He was quickly swarmed with the rest of the rookies plus Lee congratulating him and saying how that was the coolest match so far. "Arashi-kun, that was truly amazing. I am intrigued at how you obtained that level of speed. It rivals my own, and I would like to know what you did to get it." Asked the green clad ninja.

"Well Lee, I'll just say that I have done a lot of hard work. Nothing else can help in getting what you want." He said trying to avoid saying anything about his bracers.

"YOSH!! The Springtime of Youth flows strong in you indeed!!" Lee said to the disgust of everyone as he went back over to Gai.

"Arashi, when did you learn a Raiton jutsu? Also I've never seen or heard of that one before." Said Shikamaru trying to figure out his friend.

"Well you haven't heard of it because I made it myself. It's one of my favorites to do and it's also very deadly." He said as he slightly hung his head at the last statement.

"F-Forget about t-that Arashi-kun. I-It was s-something you did to p-protect me, do n-not dwell on it. Please." Hinata said trying to make Arashi feel better about the incident that had happed a couple days before.

Arashi almost instantly cheered back up from Hinata's words. "Thanks a lot Hina-chan that helps but yeah. I didn't want to kill Kabuto so I held it back, if I wanted to I could have shot it straight through his head…but I didn't!" He said with a grin.

'Hina-chan??' Shikamaru and Chouji thought as they looked at Arashi suspiciously. Kiba was fuming because he wanted to be the person to first call her that, but he hid his anger because after what Arashi just showed them Kiba didn't want to get on his bad side.

After they dispersed back to their team Naruto finally got his chance to give his congrats to Arashi. He basically tackled the boy and landed on top of him laughing. "Way to go Arashi!! You kicked his ass so hard! But couldn't you have made it go longer?"

"No, Kakashi told me to try and get it over as fast as I could, that something was up with Kabuto and he didn't want me to find out what it was. He was right; there was something strange about that Kabuto guy." He said as he walked over to Kakashi.

"Yo." He said while giving him a small wave. Then quietly he leaned in and said. "I thought I said to hold back a lot, you didn't need to release your bracers. I think you showed off a little too much out there."

Arashi just looked puzzled. "But Kakashi-sensei, I didn't release them. Also I was holding back a lot, but it did seem like Kabuto let me win. It came too easy."

Kakashi was shocked that Arashi could move that was with the bracers on. 'Damn this kid is going to be faster than me in a little while if I'm not careful!' "Yeah there is something up with Kabuto, I'll check up on it later."

Back down in the arena the medics were loading Kabuto on to a stretcher and were taking him back to get treated. Kabuto was glaring at Arashi deep in thought. 'Damn that kid, I didn't think he was going to be that strong, if I had known I would have taken it up a notch or just given up when I had the chance. If _He_ hadn't told me to loose and find out some of his powers I would have at least fought back. Arashi is strong, very strong but if I was serious and not worried about being found out I would have won easily…but it would have been an enjoyable fight.' But Kabuto didn't know how much Arashi had been holding back or about his Kekkei Genkai.

Meanwhile the Sound Jonin had a very creepy look on his face as he was thinking over what had happened to his spy. 'Hmm, this is indeed very interesting. That Himura gave Kabuto some serious damage, and it even looked like he understood that Kabuto was holding back. Still, there is no Genin alive that can fully defeat Kabuto. Very interesting indeed, I will have to get some more information on this Arashi Himura. Perhaps I have chosen the wrong person to be my next container; I wonder how you would do against him, my Sasuke-kun. Maybe I should have put the curse mark on Arashi. Interesting indeed.' He snickered a bit but then turned to see the next match.

Arashi was waiting for the screen to light up and failed to see someone looking at him intently with a blush on her face. 'He is so powerful, and he stood up for me. He cares for people; genuinely cares for others and doesn't try to hide it like a certain Hyuuga I know. Neji you baka, why don't you open up to me more? I wish you were more like Arashi, plus he is pretty cute.' She thought with a blush. The screen the suddenly lit up and began to scroll through the remaining fighters.

'Shikamaru Nara vs. Tsuchi Kin' "Yeah you get 'em Shikamaru!! Come on you can do it!! You can win this no problem!! You got it all you have to do is tell yourself 'I can not lose!' Make that girl cry!!" Screamed Ino with Chouji's arm around her.

'Man when did she get so…enthusiastic?' "Hey you must have really hit her hard with one of your punches Sakura." He was then hit over the head by his girlfriend. "Gomen, Gomen!" Ino then went back to absentmindedly cheering. 'This is ridiculous!' Thought Chouji.

"Oh man this so troublesome! I mean come on; I have to fight a girl!"

"That's right just keep thinking that little man." Kin said under her breath, but Shikamaru heard it.

'This is not going to go well, we know these guy's ability from when we fought them in the forest, only problem is that she was the only one we didn't see do anything. Plus she had seen my jutsu!' He thought as Hayate started the match. 'Oh well nothing I can do.'

"Begin!" Hayate said.

Shikamaru got in his familiar hand sign and prepared to attack. "You're not going to use that jutsu are you?" Asked the sound ninja.

"Shut up! Shadow Possession Jutsu!" He shadow stretched out to try to grab Kin but she simply jumped back towards the wall.

"Come on is that the only trick you know? If so, this is going to be easier than I thought!" She said as she threw two senbon at Shikamaru. He heard that there were bells on the ends and ducked to avoid them.

He stood back up and scoffed at Kin. "You're making fun of my tricks? Let's see next your going to throw a senbon with a bell and a senbon without a bell. I'll react to the senbon with the bell but not to the one without. Simple but effective, only if your enemy hasn't figured it out." He then quickly dodged the senbon thrown at him, some had bells while most did not, verifying his theory.

"Now you're done little man."

She then flicked her wrist and the bells on the senbon shook, sending off sound waves. Suddenly Shikamaru couldn't move. "What's going on?"

Kin then started laughing and threw a senbon at him, striking him in the shoulder. "You see I use wires connected to the bells to shake them and give off sound. It makes a peculiar sound vibration that travels to the outer and inner ear. First comes paralysis and then hallucinations." Then Kin split off into about 15 other Kin's in Shikamaru's eyes. "Now it's time to have a little fun." But before she could throw the senbon she found herself unable to move. "What the hell!?"

Shikamaru simply laughed and stood up pointing Kin, she then was forced to point at Shikamaru as well. "But how? I didn't see any shadow coming at me!!"

"Well look at your wires." She looked down to see two tiny shadows running along her wire lines. "Don't you think it's weird that wires would have a shadow at that height?" Then the shadow got bigger until it looked like Shikamaru's regular jutsu.

"I can't believe that I got caught by this lame jutsu! But oh well I mirror your movements, you can't win because of that!"

Back in the stands Arashi was enjoying the fight so far, when he heard that Kin didn't get how she was going to loose he laughed. "Anou…w-what is so f-funny Arashi-kun?"

"Well it's just that Kin doesn't see that she is going to loose. Very smart of you Shikamaru, good job." He looked over to see Hinata confused. "Just watch Hina-chan, you'll see."

"Well it is true that you only mirror my moves but I decided that we would play a little game of chicken." He then pulled out a shuriken and so did Kin.

"You're crazy!! You wouldn't actually attack yourself!"

"Watch me." He said as he threw the shuriken at her and she did the same.

She watched as the blade came closer and close, then she saw Shikamaru bend backwards very fast into a bridge. 'I'll just do the same thing!' She pulled back, but she then slammed her head into the wall behind her very hard. She then fell to the floor unconscious.

"She didn't keep aware of her surroundings, that was her downfall." Shikamaru said confidently as he walked back to his team after Hayate called the match in his favor.

Now everyone was waiting for the next match to be announced. Lee was hoping he was next and Naruto was complaining. "Even that good for nothing lazy bum won his match!! When is it going to be my turn!?"

Kiba was listing off who else was left and was praying that he would go next. "This year's rookies look to be formidable, except one." Neji said to himself as he gazed over at Hinata, she caught his gave and instantly looked away and tried to hid behind Arashi.

"What's wrong Hina-chan?" He looked over to see Neji glaring in their direction. "Oh, don't worry about him. From what you've told me about him he is just a stuck up ass. I hate people like that, I hope I can fight him one day and teach him a lesson for being like that and for being so mean to my Hina-chan….uh.. I mean…f-for being m-mean to you, Hina-chan." Arashi said turning a shade of red reserved for Hinata.

She was dumbstruck. 'Did he just call me his Hina-chan? He has to like me! Or it could just be a slip up, no; Arashi is always so good with his words. I think he likes me!' She then burst out in a gigantic smile and inched closer to Arashi. 'But now is not the time for this, I could be in a match next!' She then turned up to see the screen light up.

It scrolled through the names and eventually stopped on 'Naruto Uzumaki vs. Kiba Inuzuka'. Then both boys jumped for joy, for different reasons. Naruto was happy that he got to finally fight and he could test out the jutsu he had perfected the night before. But Kiba was very loud with his reason. "YAHOOO!! We get to fight the kid Akamaru!! This is going to be easy!!" He yelled as he jumped down and landed next to Hayate.

But back up in the stands Lee was looking very down. "Aww man, I am going to die of old age before it is my turn to fight. I just want to show Sakura what I am made of; all I want is a chance. Is that too much to ask?

'Lee, you're just like Gai was at your age.' Kakashi thought as he turned to look at Gai. He noticed Kakashi was looking at him and quickly flashed the 'nice guy' pose with the teeth sparkle and all. Kakashi and the rest of his team simply sweat dropped.

"Hey he can't fight with a puppy! That's two on one, isn't that cheating??" Yelled Naruto to the coughing Proctor.

"No, like Shino's bugs and Kankuro's puppet Akamaru is considered a ninja tool so it is legal. Anyway begin the fight."

"Come on Kiba, I've been wanting to show everyone just how good I have become and why Team 7 is the best!"

"Well that is simple; Team 7 is good because of Arashi. From what we have seen he is amazing, I'm glad I didn't have to fight him. Just his idiot friend, Team 7 is supported only by Arashi. You and Hinata just hold him back." Hinata got a very depressed look on her face when Kiba said that.

"That's wrong, we are a team and we all are strong! I feel sorry for you Kiba, you have to fight me! Also you should feel lucky you didn't have to fight Hinata-chan, she would whip your dog ass!"

"Hinata? Kick my ass? You have got to be joking, she is weak that is why she needs someone strong to protect her. That is why one day I'm going to make her my woman!" He said with a smile.

Back in the stands Hinata had a look of disgust on her face at his last comment. 'Me with Kiba? That is just wrong, plus he wouldn't be like Arashi-kun. That is why I'm going to be with him.' She thought with a slight smile on her disgusted face.

Suddenly Arashi burst out laughing. Kiba looked up at him with a glare of death. As he turned around to face Naruto he was met with a fist to his face. Kiba went flying back and skidded across the ground. "What the HELL was that for??" Yelled Kiba as he got back up.

"Did you forget the match already started?" Naruto said with a laugh. "Plus you insulted one of my team mates, now I'm going to make you pay."

Kiba then decided to get serious. A hand sign later and he yelled out the jutsu "Quadruped Jutsu!" He then got on his hands and knees and his nails grew longed and he started to look more like an actual dog. Suddenly he shot forward at an incredible speed, He then slammed his shoulder into Naruto as he flew back landed in a heap. "Call the match this is over."

"NARUTO!!" Sakura yelled in concern, ever since the time they spent together she had started to look at him as a semi-team mate. Also in a more friendly way.

"I blinked and it was over. That kid is pathetic!" Said Kankuro.

Hinata simply smiled. Kiba then turned around to see Naruto back on his feet with only a trickle of blood coming out of his mouth. "How is that possible, you should be knocked out!!"

"From that little attack? I let you hit me Kiba; I wanted to see if your bite could back up that bark of yours. Guess what, it's not! You might as well use that puppy to make it more even. Also a little word of advice…DON'T EVER UNDERESTIMATE ME!!"

"Whatever, it's your funeral. Come on Akamaru!" They both rushed at Naruto, but quickly Kiba threw a smoke grenade at Naruto. It exploded and engulfed Naruto in a purple smoke screen. Naruto was then hit by several powerful blows from Kiba. Naruto knew that while in the smoke he couldn't see them but they could smell him. He darted out of it only to be hit by Akamaru as he jumped on top of him. "Fell right into our trap, good boy Akamaru!" Kiba said as Akamaru left Naruto in the dissipating smoke and went towards Kiba. All of a sudden Akamaru leapt at Kiba and bit him hard on the arm. "A-Akamaru??"

Then Akamaru poofed into the form of Naruto laughing and making dog noises. After he let go he got a face of disgust. "Blech! You smell even worse than the dog!!"

"What did you do with him?" Kiba asked in a panic.

Then the 'Naruto' that was lying in a crumpled pile on the ground turned into a Kage Bunshin holding onto Akamaru. "Well it looks like you have gotten better since the Academy, that's good because I'm going to go serious on you now."

"Good, because I want to seriously kick your ass!"

"To balance a Henge and a Kage Bunshin at the same time, that is just something Naruto shouldn't be able to do!" Shikamaru stated to his team.

'Is this really that little goofball I used to know?' Thought Kurenai

"Whatever happened but this isn't the Naruto we used to know." The Nara said in respect.

Kiba just laughed and flicked a small pill to Akamaru and he took one himself. Akamaru started to growl very loudly and then his fur turned red, in one kick he destroyed the Kage Bunshin that was holding him and jumped over to Kiba. 'Hmm Soldier Pills, that would work perfectly with Kiba's fighting style. He already fights like a wild beast; this should just make him more dangerous. Naruto better watch out, or he's done for.' Thought Asuma

"Man-Beast Clone Jutsu!" Kiba said as Akamaru transformed into another Kiba. "Now it's time for us to finish this match Naruto!! My ultimate taijutsu, Gatsuuga!!" Kiba spun his body as did the Akamaru/Kiba, making a spinning vortex of claws. The two streaks shot at Naruto and hit him dead on. Naruto fell back about 20 feet with a sickening thud, blood running down his forehead. "You're pathetic Naruto!! Always talking about how you're going to be Hokage. Tell you what I'll do you a favor and become Hokage myself!" He then started laughing manically

Hearing the threatening of his and Arashi's dreams Naruto shakily got up saying how he will never give up. When he got to his feet he looked Kiba straight in the eye and yelled. "Someone like you doesn't deserve to be Hokage! There is only one other person I wouldn't mind having the title over me, and IT'S NOT YOU!!" He then rushed at Kiba and landed a kick to the side of his head sending him into the wall. "Well any more tricks Kiba?"

Kiba got up and snarled ant him. "Looks like I need to take it up a notch!" He and Akamaru charged at him, Kiba then threw another smoke grenade at Naruto; enveloping him in the same purple smoke. "Come on Akamaru, Gatsuuga!!" They both wound up again for the attack and went crashing into the smoke cloud, circling around inside the smoke to land a hit on Naruto.

'Got to think, got to think!! How can I get him, oh I got it!' He then did something that made the two Kibas stop in their tracks.

When the smoke cleared there were now three Kibas standing in the arena. 'Very smart Naruto; you at least got him to stop the Gatsuuga.' Thought his sensei.

Kiba just started chuckling at the sight before him. "Very nice Naruto that might work on any other ninja. But not on me! I know it's you by your scent!" He then turned and struck the Kiba to his left. He went flying back and suddenly puffed into Akamaru. "What? Then that means!!" He then turned quickly and hit the other Kiba to his left. He then also poofed into Akamaru. "What is going on here!?"

"I'll answer that!!" Kiba snapped around to find Naruto in the air, he came down and landed a hard solid punch to his face; sending him flying.

"Amazing he tricked Kiba into knocking Akamaru out!" Kurenai said in disbelief.

"Nothing against you Kiba but I'm tired of playing around. Time to finish this with a new move of mine." He put up his hand in his favorite hand sign. "Kage Bunshin Jutsu!" Four other Narutos appeared and ran to a position circling Kiba. The original jumped high off of the clone in front of him. Kiba was still groggy form the punch so he couldn't move. The cloves rushed in and slide kicked him into the air. "U...Zu...Ma…Ki…"Kiba was now high in the air with the original Naruto above him, just as they were about to hit the ground Naruto connected his heel onto the top of Kiba's head. "Naruto Rendan!!"

Kiba's head bounced off the ground as he let out a painful groan. But much to everyone's surprise Kiba was not out, he struggled very badly to stand up but only go to one knee. "Good you aren't knocked out yet, now I get to try my new jutsu out on you!" Naruto did a couple hand signs and his arms then began to have little cyclones spinning around them going opposite directions. Naruto brought his arms up to form an 'X' with the bottom of it pointing at Kiba. He started to slide the cyclones against each other making a bright yellow energy form and point directly at Kiba. "Futon: Wind Slash Juts…"

"STOP!! I am calling this match!! Winner…Naruto Uzumaki!" Hayate said as he stepped in front of Kiba, making Naruto stop his jutsu.

"What why did you make me stop!?" Asked the victorious blonde.

"Because judging by the power behind that jutsu, if you would have preformed it then Kiba would have died instantly. Now go back to your team." He then turned to the medics. "Get out here; 'cough' this boy needs your help now!"

Everyone was shocked, not only by the fact that Naruto had won. But that his jutsu was powerful enough to force the proctor to stop the match. "YEAH NARUTO!! You sure kicked his ass!!" Yelled Arashi as Naruto came up the stairs with a huge smile on his face. He walked past Kurenai, Sakura, and Shino who all still couldn't move from shock.

Sakura only managed to get out. "How is that possible? He beat Kiba that badly!" But it only came out as a whisper.

Kakashi had a smile on his face beneath his mask at his student's accomplishment. 'Hayate, you were right to step in when you did, he would have killed Kiba if you hadn't. I know Naruto wouldn't have wanted that to happen.'

Lee was over congratulating the orange clad ninja while Neji was just glaring at him. 'There is something about that kid I really don't like. He defies destiny, it shouldn't be able to be done but he does.' He just scowled even harder at the boy.

"Y-You did great Naruto-kun!" Hinata said in a voice loud for her, but normal for everyone else.

"Yeah thanks Hinata-chan, but I probably shouldn't have been playing around with him as long as I did. Oh well I hope your match is next I can't wait to see you do your best." He replied.

"Yeah, me either. I want everyone here to see what a great ninja you have become Hina-chan." Arashi said with a smile as he placed his hand on her shoulder. She then turned beat red at his caring comment.

"T-T-Thank you Arashi-kun, I w-will make y-you proud to b-be my t-team mate."

"Don't worry, you already have." He said with a when a blush overtook his face.

Sakura couldn't help but see what was going on between Arashi and Hinata. "Awww, isn't that sweet Shino-kun?"

He calmly said. "Yes it is, but I'm sure Kiba wouldn't like seeing it though" Sakura just nodded in agreement.

"Well that sure was interesting; who would have thought the idiot kid would beat the dog boy!" Said Kankuro to Temari.

"Really also that he could use futon jutsu like that, I can't even do what he did right there. I have to use my fan; I can't do it without it!" She said in shock at the boy.

"Now 'cough' on to the next fight." The screen lit up and scrolled through the fighters. 'Hinata Hyuuga vs. Neji Hyuuga'

Hinata's eyes instantly dropped at the sight of the screen. 'I can't defeat Neji! I know I have gotten better, but there is no way I could beat him.'

She then felt herself in a tight embrace. She instantly blushed when she saw the green in his jacket. "I believe in you Hina-chan, you can do it." Was all he said as he moved her away from him and towards the stairs. She had never had more confidence in her life than in that moment right there.

She had an enormous smile on her face when she approached Hayate. "Are you two ready?" They both nodded. "Begin."

"Before we start this I want to offer you the chance to quit. If you decide to continue I will not be held responsible for what happens to you."

"I-I u-understand brother, b-but I w-will fight you n-none the l-less. I-I have s-s-someone who b-believes in me, and I w-will not l-let h-him down." She said as she turned and gave Arashi a blush held smile.

"You are a fool Hinata-sama; you think that by having someone who believes in you that you will be able to become stronger? You are a weakling and a loser; you can not change that fact. It is destiny that you will be as you are, you are too kind and gentle to be strong. You seek harmony instead of conflict; it is this inescapable fact that makes you weak as a ninja. It would be in your best interest to quit now." He said with a smirk.

Hinata's confidence was wavering from what it was before, she felt small and insignificant compared to Neji. She just wanted to run away and hide, she didn't want to fight because she thought she would lose... It chanced her that she looked to Arashi once more, she saw him mouthing words to her as to encourage her. 'I believe in you Hina-chan.' He mouthed it with a calm caring look on his face, a look that radiated warmth and confidence, support, and dare she think love.

As quickly as Neji had striped her of her confidence it was back and even stronger. "No Neji-san, I w-will not r-run this t-time." She then activated her Byakugan. "Prepare yourself nii-san! I will not give up!"

She then bolted towards him quickly making a juuken thrust at him; he quickly pivoted to avoid her blow. 'The weakness is gone from her eyes, she is confident in her abilities. I have never seen Hinata-sama like this before. There is almost ferociousness to the look in her eyes.'

They continued to thrust and parry continually, neither of them could land a blow on the other. Hinata had Neji on the run; she was putting everything she had into her attacks. 'Arashi-kun, I have always been there to support you and watch you grow and become stronger. Now I want to be able to show you just how strong you have pushed me to become.' They continued with their delicate attacks for a little bit longer until Hinata finally saw an opening in Neji's stance, she leapt at it and focused her chakra in the tip of her index and middle finger. She then shoved the fingers into Neji's stomach blasting a large amount of chakra through it.

Neji stumbled back and coughed up a fair amount of blood. "Impossible!! No one can get through Neji's style! He is a genius; there is no way that Hinata could land an attack on him!" Yelled his sensei. Neji simply whipped the blood from his lip and got back into his stance.

"You have indeed gotten stronger than you were Hinata-sama, but not nearly strong enough!" He rushed forward at a speed Hinata could barely see, Neji poised to land a blow to her heart but she luckily blocked it quickly enough. Once more they continued with their thrusts and parries, except there was something slightly different this time. To Hinata it was going the same as the first spurt of fighting, except she was feeling a strange prick on her arms a couple times a minute.

As with the first time around she saw an opening and went for it, she trusted for Neji's shoulder hoping to take it out with the attack. But she quickly was stopped by Neji with a poke to her arm and a juuken jab to her gut. She fell to the ground and coughed up some blood herself. "This is futile Hinata-sama you have been beaten. Look at your arms."

She slowly pulled her jacket sleeves up to reveal several tiny bruises all over her arms. "No, you c-c-couldn't have!"

"Yes, I did indeed. I closed off every one of your tenketsu in your arms. I have cut off your chakra flow to them so juuken in now ineffective for you. I have won, not give up."

She was still on the ground and was coughing up blood. Slowly she started to raise herself. "I…I will not g-g-give up…I said I w-wouldn't a-and I n-never g-go back on m-my w-word, t-that is m-my nindo, m-my ninja w-way as w-well." She said while still coughing up blood.

Quickly she threw herself into another round of fighting even without the use of juuken. 'Arashi-kun, watch me now. I have been watching you for so long, hoping that I could get closer to you. First we became friend and I was truly happy, I never was happy at home after my mother died but you changed that. You accepted me for whom I was and wanted to be around me. But when we would talk I would get nervous and wouldn't be able to talk much. So when we got put on the same team I figured that it would bring us closer. It has, I have lost much of my nervousness and it is all thanks to you, Naruto, and Kakashi-sensei. I have watched you for so long wishing for your eyes to soully be on me, now that they are, I will not let you down.' She thought as the battle raged.

All of her determination was in vain because Neji hit her with another hit to the stomach, sending her back to the ground spitting up blood. "Why do you fight against destiny Hinata-sama, it is pointless. You can't possibly hope to win, your destiny is set in motion when you are born; no matter how hard you try you can not escape your fate and I see you suffer because of it."

She slowly came back to her feet to the surprise of most of the people in the arena. "You are wrong brother; it is not I who fights against fate. It is you; also you are the one who is suffering more I think. You suffer because of the fate between the main and branch houses."

Neji suddenly took on a look of rage, a look of murder. He charged at Hinata with bloodlust dripping from his voice. He was going to kill her in front of everyone, and he was going to enjoy it. "Neji no!! The Match is over, you win!" Hayate yelled as he rushed in to try and stop Neji from fulfilling his desire.

"HINA-CHAN!!" Arashi screamed as he disappeared from the stands and appeared in front of Neji along with Hayate, all the rookie's Jonin except Asuma, and including Gai. They all were holding him back from getting to Hinata. If looks could kill then Neji would have died from Arashi's glare 100 times over. Without noticing it his eyes had activated and shone their brilliant silver color to Neji. Then with a very threatening voice Arashi whispered in Neji's ear. "If you ever hurt my Hina-chan again…I'll kill you!"

For the first time in his life Neji was afraid for his life. He didn't doubt for a second the threat that he just received. He backed up slowly with fear plastered in his eyes, he tried desperately to repress the feeling he was getting. After finally calming himself he spoke to the Jonin present. "So this is what you will do for the Main Branch?"

"Neji get a hold of yourself, you promised me that the family issue wouldn't come up." Said his green clad sensei.

Hinata then collapsed where she stood half from her injuries and half from what Arashi had done for her. "Hina-chan!!" Arashi yelled as he ran over to her leaving Neji scowling at him and the Jonin. 'Crap! She is hurt really bad, I'll have to do something and fast. Good thing you taught me that jutsu last night Yondaime!"

"**That is what I'm here for, now hurry up and help her. Those wounds could be very serious if you don't help her now!"**

'Of course.' He then did a hand sign and then his hands glowed green as he held them over Hinata's unconscious body. Pushing his chakra into her he started to repair some of the damage Neji had done with his juuken hits. By this time Naruto had jumped down as well and was locked in a heated discussion with Neji about fate and how a failure can rise up and do great things.

Reaching down Naruto picked up some of Hinata's blood from the floor. He then made a fist at Neji and said. "I promise I will defeat you're pompous ass for my team mate! You're going down Neji-teme!"

Neji simply scoffed as he went back up the stairs and said. "A failure like you could never defeat a person like me."

Kakashi quickly then went over to his other two students. He then saw that Arashi was treating her wounds on the spot and called for the medics. They then took over from Arashi who was gracious for the help. They then took Hinata back into the medical wing for intensive treatment. 'When did he learn a medical jutsu? I know I didn't teach it to him, then who did?' "Arashi, where did you learn that jutsu?"

Arashi went white at the realization that it would be almost impossible to explain it without spilling his secret to him. He then rubbed his neck and grinned at his sensei. "Well…you see…that's a secret!" He said laughing as he ran back to where he had been next to Naruto, who was still glaring at Neji. 'I barely got out of that; I really didn't want to get caught in that lie. I hope he doesn't bring it up again.'

"**Arashi, you know he is going to. It's not like Kaka-kun to forget something that intrigues him."**

'Kaka-kun?? Did you seriously call him that?'

"**Of course, I was his Jonin sensei after all. He does deserve to know about you, he thinks I'm dead after all. Don't worry though I'm not telling you to do it now, only when you feel like it."**

'Sure whatever and I'll be sure to call him Kaka-kun, I'm sure he will get it after that' Arashi could hear Yondaime laughing in agreement. 'I sure hope Hinata is going to be all right, I don't now what I would do without her.'

He then felt a hand rest on his shoulder, looking over he saw Naruto looking right at him almost as if he was reading his mind. "Don't worry; I'm sure she will be alright. Have faith, it's not like you to get all down like this. She will be fine dattebayo! Also when you go see her later I'm sure it would be the perfect time to tell her how you feel." He said with a sly look on his face.

"Naruto! Shut up they are announcing the next fight." Arashi looked up at the screen as it scrolled through names, but his mind was still only thinking about Hinata. 'Maybe I should tell her, but how would I?'

'Rock Lee vs. Gaara' Was what was shown on the screen. Lee instantly erupted in hysterics. "ALL RIGHT!! It worked I sure fooled them! By saying I did not want to go next earlier I tricked them into making me next. It is a form of reverse psychology!"

"Good job Lee!" Exclaimed Gai.

Meanwhile everyone around him sweat dropped at the idea of Lee tricking the computer into making him next, it was simply ludicrous. "Finally I can show my lovely Sakura-chan what I am made of!"

Gai then called Lee in close as to tell him a secret. "Lee, I got some advice for you. You see that gourd on Gaara's back?" Lee nodded. "Watch out for it, there is something fishy about it!" He said with a grim look.

'He just now noticed the gourd?' Thought Kakashi covering his face in shame for being associated with the Green Beast of Konoha.

Meanwhile Kankuro decided to go over and try to find out some information on Neji. He walked over and happened to stop next to Naruto. "Hey there, Naruto right? I was wondering if you knew any thing about that Neji guy. Something tells me we didn't see the full extent of his powers. What's his story?"

"I'm going to KICK HIS ASS!! THAT'S HIS STORY!!" Naruto exclaimed with his fist in the air.

'This kid is an idiot!' "You're funny. I like you" Kankuro said with a smile.

Naruto simply looked back at the guy who had bullied Konohamaru earlier and said with a foxy look. "Well… I DON'T like you!"

'I'm going to KILL this kid!!' He thought as he turned to see Gaara waiting in the arena next to Hayate.

Gai was fired up for his student. "ALRIGHT!! ROCK…AND ROLL!!"

"YES SIR!!" He exclaimed as he jumped down to the floor.

Hayate motioned for the match to begin, but the two simply stood there. Suddenly something shot at Lee who moved his hand and caught the object with a smile. "Why are you in such a hurry?" He asked as he dropped the cork to Gaara's gourd.

Rushing straight at Gaara Lee took off into the air. "Leaf Hurricane!" He yelled as he gave a spinning kick to Gaara, but surprisingly the kick was stopped by a wall of sad without Gaara even moving a muscle. 'I see a sand manipulating jutsu; it will not be easy getting through that. But nothing ventured, nothing gained!' Thought the mini Gai look-alike. The sand then suddenly rose up and attacked Lee, causing him to jump back to avoid the sand.

"WHOA!! He didn't even move!" Yelled the blonde to no one in particular.

"That was Gaara's Shield of Sand; it moves to protect Gaara on its own accord. Gaara doesn't have to move the sand moves on its own that is why he has never been touched."

Back down on the floor Lee was going through some vicious taijutsu attacks that were only getting blocked by the sand. While attacking he also had to consistently dodge the sand as it shot out to grab on to him. Whipping out a kunai Lee easily cut through the sand as it was trying to encircle him. Jumping up he threw two kunai at his opponent quickly only to see them get lost in a whip of Gaara's sand.

"Well is that all? I hope you haven't finished entertaining me. There hasn't been enough…blood!" Gaara said with a sick and twisted look in his eye.

Feed up with not being able to hit his opponent, Lee leapt up and decided to go full speed at the state he was in. He moved extremely fast and got to Gaara in a blink of an eye, but his attacks were still being stopped by the shield. "Whoa, he's almost as fast as Arashi was in his match!" Said Sakura as she watched her admirer.

Naruto and Arashi smirked knowing that Arashi had been wearing his bracers, but also because they could plainly tell that Lee was wearing some weights himself. They looked down to see him in another bout of intense taijutsu shots. All of a sudden Lee slipped on some sand underneath him, just as the sand was about to come down and crush him he jumped high into the air and landed on top of the statue on the edge of the fighting area.

"I just don't get it; he can see taijutsu won't work here. Why doesn't he try getting some distance and using some ninjutsu?" Sakura asked out load.

"Well it isn't that he isn't, it's that he can't. Lee has absolutely no ability in ninjutsu or genjutsu. You should have seen him when I first met him! No talent whatsoever." The remaining members of Team 8 along with Kakashi's looked at Gai like it was impossible for a ninja to have no abilities in ninjutsu. "A ninja with no ninjutsu is a rarity indeed, but we turned his disadvantage into a blessing by focusing all his time on taijutsu. Making him a master taijutsu specialist!" Arashi was taken back at this; the level of work that Lee must have gone through to get that good was astonishing. He gained a new respect for Lee that day. Gai then turned to Lee with a smile and shouted. "Alright Lee!! Take them off!" Arashi and Naruto instantly knew what he was talking about.

Lee's face lit up when he heard his sensei speak those words. "B-But sensei, the condition has not been met!"

"I know Lee, but this…is an exception!" He said striking the 'nice-guy pose'.

Lee took on an even bigger smile as he pulled down his legwarmers to reveal two ankle weights. Unstrapping them he stood back up with one in each hand. "Now, that is much better. I can move freely now!" He said as he dropped them.

'Dropping a few pounds isn't going to do much against Gaara.' The blonde Sand ninja thought as she watched the weights make their decent to the arena floor.

"BOOOOOM!!" Was the sound heard by everyone as the weights hit the floor making craters underneath them. "You think you went a little over board on the weights Gai?" Kakashi asked.

"Alright now GO!! Let the power of youth EXPLOAD!!" Yelled Gai to his favorite student.

"Yes sir!!" Lee yelled back as he disappeared in a flash. Everyone completely lost where he had gone except Arashi and Naruto. They were used to traveling at that speed and could keep up with his movements. To them when they looked at the craters it only looked like he was using at most 300 pounds while they were using 400 pounds.

Naruto leaned in to Arashi and very quietly said. "Ha, they think that is fast. It's a good thing we held back so much. Wouldn't want too much attention." Arashi simply let out a small laugh at this and nodded.

Lee had then appeared right behind Gaara and shot forward with a powerful punch, going straight trough the sand but missing his head by inches. Flashing away again he zipped around to knock through the sand again. Gaara was now getting worried; he had never faced anyone that fast before; he was going to go to extreme measures to beat Lee. "Looking for me? I am here." An explosion of sand came next to Gaara's head. "No, here…I'm here!" Then Lee appeared above Gaara in the middle of several flips. He then came down on Gaara's head in a hard kick that connected.

"Gaara's been hit! That's impossible!" Kankuro yelled out of surprise.

With a smile Lee rushed back at Gaara, but a wave of sand was sent his way to stop him. Lee simply darted around it and ended up behind Gaara, when he turned around he was hit full force in the face by a hard punch that sent him flying. Lee had a look of great accomplishment after he hit him.

Gaara stood back up slowly, but there was something very wrong about him when he got up. Bits of his face had fallen off and were collecting in a pool of sand underneath him. But what was really wrong was his facial expression; it was one of utter bloodlust. "This is bad, really bad." Kankuro said with Naruto looking at him with a questioning look. "You see that is Gaara's second defense, it is there in case something could get past the sand shield. The sand condenses on him and forms a sand armor around Gaara. For him to resort to that, this must he a hard battle for him."

"Wow, does that guy have any weaknesses!?" Yelled the exuberant blonde.

'Yeah, that sand armor is one big weakness. Unlike the shield Gaara has to use his chakra to keep it in place, and it uses an enormous amount of it. Too long with it up and he will he done.'

While Kankuro was explaining things to Naruto, Gaara had covered himself in sand again. Replacing his bloodlust with the normal emotionless face he always had on. 'This is not working, the only way I can get him is…with the Lotus!' Lee thought as he looked at Gai. His sensei simply nodded, knowing exactly what Lee was thinking about. Lee then slowly undid his bandages.

Suddenly Lee took off with blinding speed in a circle around Gaara making a dust ring form around him. "What are you waiting for? Attack all ready!"

"You asked for it!" Lee said as he caught Gaara with a strong kick under the chin that sent him into the air but not high enough for the Lotus. "How about this!" He yelled as he propelled himself up while delivering many kicks to Gaara's midsection. Gai was praying that Lee end it in one shot because of the after effects of the move. Just as Lee was about to wrap Gaara up he closed his eyes in pain, then twirled his bandages around the sand ninja. Shifting him around so that they were facing the ground, Lee began to spin the two very rapidly. "PRIMARY LOTUS!!" He yelled as he slammed Gaara head first into the concrete floor under them while leaping away breathing very heavily.

"He did it!" Sakura yelled. The smoke cleared to show Gaara with a shocked look on his face, all of a sudden he started to crack and fall apart. Lee was stunned at the fact that he had just given the Lotus to a shell that Gaara switched with right before the attack. Gaara then appeared in a blast of sand with the same bloodlust radiating off his face. "Lee look out!!" She yelled as Lee turned around to see his opponent.

Lee was desperately trying to dodge Gaara's attacks but because of the Lotus' side effect he was hardly able to doge most of them so he was pummeled into the wall several time. But he refused to give up. The genin on the Konoha side of the balcony were being informed by Gai and Kakashi about the Lotus and the 8 chakra gates. Suddenly Lee regained his speed and easily dodged all of Gaara's attacks. 'I will make you proud Gai-sensei. Forge ahead, push myself to the edge, and become the ninja I know I can be!'

"So that Genin, that 'boy' can open the 8 inner chakra gates?" Kakashi asked.

"That is correct." Gai said with a smile on his face.

Kakashi was visibly angry at Gai now when he said. "So how many of them can he open now?"

"Lee can open five of them."

"Gai I don't know what that boy means to you, but I have lost respect for you."

"You have no right to criticize me! You don't know anything about that boy!! He has something to prove and would happily be willing to give up his life to prove it." Gai then started to reminisce on the memories of Lee growing up and his early training with him. It just brought a smile to the Jonin's face as he saw Lee open the third gate.

"What's happening?" Sakura asked to no one in particular.

The air around Lee became thick and heavy with flowing chakra, his body began to get tenser and his veins began popping out more, his skin also took on a reddish look. "Third Gate, Gate of Life…OPEN!!" Power was now radiating from Lee, he looked more powerful than anyone could have imagined. Chakra then began to spiral around him and he took on a green aura around him, he was still growing in power and it seemed to be painful too. "The FOURTH GATE!! GATE OF PAIN…OPEN!!" He screamed in pain as even more power came rushing from his body.

He crouched down and speed at Gaara at a speed that Arashi and Naruto were no where near achieving. The force of him taking off was enough to destroy half of the arena floor. He once again connected with Gaara's chin sending him high in the air this time.

Then using his insane speed Lee began to pummel Gaara back and forth while he was still in the air, effectively stripping him of his sand armor and sending shockwaves from each hit. It truly was an amazing sight to behold. Kakashi had earlier pulled out his Sharingan and was watching to see everything; to him he could see that Lee's own muscles were being ripped apart. While Neji was in awe of the spectacle that was going on before him. 'Is that really Lee? Where did he get this power from?' He thought as Lee hit Gaara into the air once again.

"One more and we are finished!! The Fifth Gate. GATE OF CLOSING…OPEN!!" He screamed as he hit Gaara very hard with a punch that sent him shooting down like a bullet. Gaara then noticed that one of Lee's bandages were wrapped around him, with a sharp pull Lee heaved Gaara back up to him ripping off more of the sand armor. "Now to FINISH IT!!" He yelled as he struck Gaara with a foot and a fist at the same time sending him back down faster than before.

Gaara knew he would not make it if he took all the damage that he would take if he hit the ground. So he dissolved his gourd to cushion his landing. When he struck the ground it made a gigantic explosion and a crater where Gaara lay in. Lee rolled out of the explosion back to his normal self just barely conscious. When the dust cleared he was horrified to see that Gaara was not out cold or worse.

Gaara was almost out of chakra so he wanted to end it fast. "Sand Coffin!" He said as the sand reached over and took a hold of Lee as he attempted to scramble away with all the pain shooting through his body. "Sand Buria…" He was about to crush the genin when the sand around him erupted to show a very pissed off looking Gai. "Wh-Why did you save him? He failed!"

"It is because he is a subordinate whom I love!" Gai said with the truth emanating from his eyes.

'Love, that is one sentiment that Gaara couldn't possibly understand.' Though his sensei.

"This match is over, winner…Gaara." Said Hayate, who was very relieved that Gai had stepped in when he did, if he hadn't Lee's Shinobi career could have been ended with a shattered leg and arm. He quickly called for the medics to take his unconscious body into the intensive care area.

Gai turned around to help pick up his student but when he turned he was that Lee was still on his feet and in his fighting stance. He then looked in his eyes and saw that he was out cold. "Lee, fighting even when unconscious. I'm so proud of you!" He said in tears as he went over and gave his student a big hug before handing him over to the medics.

"That was amazing!" Naruto said

"I have never seen anything like it; I don't know what to say!" Arashi was in awe at what had gone on before him. Lee was someone who he now wanted desperately to train with and spar.

"What a great way to end the preliminaries!" Naruto said jokingly.

Wham! "How dare you forget my Chouji-kun!!" Hayate then called up for Chouji and Dosu to come down for their fight. "Go get him Chouji-kun, I love you." She said with a kiss for good luck.

"Thanks Ino-chan, I love you too and I'm going to try my best." He said as he worked his way down and put in some ear plugs.

"Chouji Akamichi and Dosu Kinuta, are you ready?" They both nodded. "Then begin."

Chouji instantly did a hand sign and started the expansion jutsu. He then went into the Meat Tank Jutsu and went flying at Dosu who easily dodged and made Chouji ram into the wall. When he stopped it forced him to stop, Dosu just went over and punched Chouji's inflated body and flicked his sound device. It radiated sound through Chouji's body and knocked him out. A very disappointing battle for Ino, she figured that her love would do something a little more. But she knew that the sound ninja was indeed powerful so she didn't think too much of it.

"The winner is Dosu Kinuta. This concludes the preliminary round, will all the winning contestants please approach us." Hayate said as he motioned to all the Proctors, Jonin, and Sandaime who were standing behind him.

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**My GOD was that long, sorry if that took too long I'm at home for spring break and I've been kinda of busy.**

**Oh well I hope you liked it. PLEASE REVIEW!! I have been getting a depressingly low amount of reviews!! Also since only 3 people have even said anything about ideas for Arashi's summon I might go with their idea unless I get a suggestion I like better.**

**One more thing I think I finally came up with a person I can get Naruto with!!**

**SOOOOO review or I'll hit you with a Chidori to the face!!**


	10. Confessions and the Super Pervert!

**Review Reply:**

**Alik: **Well it would seem like that summon would be the best for Arashi, I'm really liking the idea. It was one of the ones I was originally thinking of but I wanted some feed back. As for Hinata, I don't know yet. But for Naruto I haven't had him talking with Kyuubi b/c of the 5 prong seal that Oro gave him remember.

**Edengrave:** Well I like that you like the story but to answer your two problems. Just look at the name of the story, it kind resolves that. As for Naruto, he is still only almost 13 and can be naive. He had never used that jutsu so he didn't know how much power it would put out.

**Aurora of the Light:** Well it seems you get to not be hit with a Chidori yet. But yeah I kinda went a lot with the Gaara Lee fight, but hey it is one of my favorite fights so can you blame me? Also I didn't want to have Arashi reveal too much in his fight as to escape questioning. But more focus on them will come soon.

**Artemis-kibasgirlfriend:** Yeah I agree think I'm going to go with that animal for the summon. Also thanks for noticing, I do rock! Plus I hope you do get Kiba so you can keep him away from Hinata!! YAY NARUHINA! (Except in my story, it is the only place I can tolerate her being with someone other than Naruto!"

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto**

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Currently Naruto, Arashi, Temari, Gaara, Kankuro, Shikamaru, Shino, Dosu, and Neji were standing in front of the Hokage awaiting information concerning the final rounds of the Chunin Exams.

Sarutobi cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "First off I would like to congratulate you all on making it this far in the exams. I am proud of you all, even if you are not from this village." The old man said with a smile. "Now for the final round, will everyone please come up and pick a number. Out of the box and show it to Ibiki-san."

Everyone went up and picked a number out of a box. When they all returned to face Sarutobi he spoke again. "These numbers will determine who you fight in the main tournament. The rules will be the same as these fights; just you will have a 'slightly' larger audience. The tournament will be held in exactly one month so I advise you to start training or resting up whatever you feel will help you the most. You are dismissed; you can now leave the tower and return to the village. You may see who you are fighting of course before you leave." He said with a smile as he and the other Proctors disappeared in a puff of smoke.

They all went over to see who they were fighting.

The paper said. 'Naruto Uzumaki vs. Neji Hyuuga, Sasuke Uchiha vs. Gaara, Shino Aburame vs. Kankuro, Temari vs. Shikamaru Nara, and Dosu Kinuta vs. Arashi Himura.'

"YES!!! You're so going down Neji-teme!! Also Sasuke-teme should get his ass handed to him by that Gaara guy; we all saw how Bushy Brow kicked his ass and Gaara beat him. It should he GREAT!!!"

"Naruto, calm down we need to get out of here and check on Hina-chan! Also we need to find Kakashi-sensei so he can train us both! Let's go." Arashi said as he eyed the sound ninja while leaving with his exuberant friend.

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Kakashi had just came across Kabuto about to kill Sasuke in his hospital room and had managed to save the boy but unfortunately lost Kabuto after verifying that he was working under Orochimaru. "Damn he got away, but at least he didn't harm Sasuke. I thought I felt something weird over here."

Sasuke then stirred in his sleep and painfully opened his eyes. He had been asleep since Kakashi had taken him away from the fights and put a seal on top of his curse mark. When he woke up he was surprised to find several ANBU members dead around the room and a very pissed off Kakashi muttering something to himself. "K-Kakashi? What's going on here? Are all the fights over with?"

Kakashi turned to see the Uchiha barely sitting up. "Nothing of importance happened just someone tried to kill you but I stopped them, don't worry you're safe. As for the exam, yes the fights are over. There is going to be a final tournament in a month so rest up, when you are well to move we will begin training for it."

To say Sasuke was surprised would be an understatement. 'Someone trying to kill me is SOMETHING OF IMPORTANCE!!!' He screamed in his head. "What about your team? Why aren't you training them?"

"Well Naruto and Arashi did pass the preliminaries. But you specifically need my training because you have the Sharingan. Only I can train you in it, don't worry about them. I have arranged for an old friend to train the whole team when they are ready to start training. So I'll see you in a couple days when you are cleared form here." He said as he left the room with a wave.

As he walked down the hallway he was met stopped by a med-nin who had a sheet of paper. "Kakashi-sama, I have the report concerning Hinata Hyuuga's recovery." He said out of breath obviously from looking around for Kakashi.

He looked down at the paper and read. 'Hinata Hyuuga had taken serious damage to her stomach, gallbladder, small intestine, spleen, and liver. No doubt form the attacks on her by Neji Hyuuga. Her injuries would have been fatal if most of them had not been successfully healed before the medic team arrived to administer treatment. Arashi Himura saved her life by administering the help that he did. She will be fully healed and able to continue training in about two days. Please be sure to thank Arashi-san for saving her life for me, I really wouldn't want a dead Hyuuga heiress on my hands."

Kakashi sighed in relief that Hinata was going to be alright, but was also glad that it was Arashi who was responsible for her being as healed as she had been. It was sure to bring them closer. He was getting tired of them both beating around the bush and not telling each other their feelings. Yes, Kakashi was being a gigantic hypocrite.

Suddenly an ANBU member puffed into existence in front of him. "Kakashi Hatake, Hokage-sama wishes to speak with you in his office, he says it is urgent." Kakashi simply nodded as he teleported away just as Naruto was rounding the corner of the hallway to no doubt ask for him to train him, it made him smile that he had escaped him. But only slightly.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(Hokage Tower, 5 minutes earlier.)

Arashi had just walked into Sandaime's office alone, which was odd for Sarutobi. Naruto was always with him whenever they visited. But there was a look on Arashi's face that told him that there was something serious. "Is there anything that I can do for you Arashi?" The Hokage asked with compassion in his voice.

Arashi calmly looked up and addressed Sandaime in a way Arashi hadn't addressed him in many years. "Hokage-sama, I have a very important matter to discuss with you. Also I wish to discuss certain things about Naruto and I's training for the finals next month."

"Arashi, why are you being so formal. You all ways call me Oji-san."

"I know, but this is too important to play around with. I you could please summon Kakashi-sensei here also I need him to be here when I talk to you about this. He deserves to know also." He said with an ominous tone in his voice.

"All right Arashi, I will send an ANBU member over to the hospital right now. He should be here in about a minute."

After Sandaime sent the summons they both sat there in silence until Kakashi showed up in a puff of smoke with his signature welcoming pose of a wave. "Yo, what can I do for you Hokage-sama?" He then saw Arashi sitting over in a near by chair. "What are you doing here Arashi?"

"Actually Kakashi-san, he was the one who asked for you to be here. Apparently he has something of grave importance to discuss with the both of us." Kakashi was now intrigued and went to sit down next to Arashi.

Arashi was visibly nervous, which was rare for him in most things that didn't concern Hinata. Kakashi saw this and remembered the news about Hinata. "Oh, by the way Arashi; Hinata is going to be fine and released in two days. Apparently you saved her life when you treated her so quickly. I was to personally thank you for your efforts by the doctor treating her." He said as he patted his back. "By the way where did you learn that medical jutsu anyway, you ran away before you could answer last time."

Arashi let out a sigh of relief at the news about Hinata. 'I protected her again. Good.' "Well that is part of why I called you here." He then looked down at the floor in a very un-Arashi way.

"**Come on Arashi you can do it, tell them."**

'I know, shut up for now.' "Well first off I want to say that I only found out about this a couple days ago in the Forest of Death." Now Kakashi and Sandaime were even more interested, if something was making Arashi act this way it had to be big. "I guess the easiest way to do this is just to say it…" Arashi sighed heavily. "Yondaime isn't dead."

"WHAT!!!!!!!" The two men screamed. "How is he alive, where is he, how do you know where he is, why hasn't he shown himself??" They both were saying.

Arashi gulped as he started to answer the questions. "Well…something kind of happened when he sealed the Kyuubi and…he kind of sealed himself…" He then spoke very quietly. "Inside my soul."

Both me were utterly shocked, they both sat there in total shock for about five minutes before Sandaime broke the science. "How did he get sealed inside of you? Also how do you know that the Kyuubi was sealed, everyone was told that he was destroyed by Yondaime."

"Well to answer your second question, he told me. But he refuses to tell me what she was sealed into. But to answer your first question he told me that after the seal was done and he was going to be devoured by the Shinigami my soul bumped into him as I was about to be born so he quickly sealed himself into my soul to look out for someone. But he won't tell me who either."

The two men were even more shocked at this statement also. Kakashi then spoke up to try to prove the claims of the genin. "So how can you prove that Sensei is indeed sealed inside of you?"

"Well he told me to comment on my eyes and my new hair color that is coming through." The men looked at the two features that were obviously the same as Yondaime, and were beginning to believe him. "He also wanted to say hi to Kaka-kun and say he was proud of you for taking Obito's eye to the third tome."

Kakashi then fell on the floor in shock. He slowly got back up and addressed Sandaime. "I believe that he is telling the truth, I have never told them the origin of my Sharingan and also Sensei was the only person who has ever called me that except my Father when I was young." Sandaime nodded at Kakashi's statement.

"Kakashi, I am making this a SS-class Village Secret. If someone were to find out that Arashi-san was sealed inside of…Arashi. Then things would no doubted get bad, Rock would probably hunt him down like there was no tomorrow." Kakashi nodded in agreement. The Hokage then turned to Arashi. "It is fitting that you would bear his name along with his characteristics."

Arashi looked confused. "Anou, Oji-san Yondaime says that the only thing he has given me is my eye color and immense chakra and stamina reserves. Also the hair, he says if I use his chakra more it will get more blonde." Now it was their turn to look confused. "Let me explain, he can give me his chakra if I ask for it. It is a weird yellow chakra that feels very powerful. So when it comes in contact with my hair it seems to change it some. So I will eventually have hair like Naruto's. Speaking of Naruto."

The two suddenly gulped thinking that Yondaime had told Arashi something either about the Kyuubi or Yondaime's relationship with him. "What about him?"

"Well since the finals are in a month I was going to ask for someone to train us because I just have a feeling Kakashi-sensei is going to ditch us and train Sasuke because of his Sharingan." He said accusingly at his sensei.

"Guilty, am I that predictable?" Arashi answered with a grin and a nod. "Well anyway I already made preparations for a trainer. I think you'll like him, he's an old friend of mine." He said with a wink that looked like a blink to everyone else in the room. Arashi was trying to figure out who he meant.

"An old friend…" His face then lit up when he remembered a story Arashi had told him earlier. "You mean…"

"Yes, I arranged that He will be teaching you some things. But I'm making it a team training section. So you will begin when Hinata gets out of the hospital, He will be waiting at the Hot Springs for you in two days. I advise you to go tell your team mates, but don't tell anyone about Sensei. It would be in your best interest for you to keep that a well guarded secret. You can only tell those people closest to you, but I would wait a while to tell them if I were you."

Arashi then got a strange look as he nodded and made his way to the door, just as he was about to leave he turned around and said. "Are you sure Hina-chan should be there with Ero-sennin being like he is?" He then shot off in the direction of the hospital to visit Hinata.

The two men were now laughing their heads off. "Ero-sennin!! I haven't heard him be called that since Sensei and I got together with him one time!!" Said a hysterical Kakashi.

Elsewhere a white-haired man suddenly sneezed and alerted his position to the women he was currently watching bath. Earning him a savage beating with them all screaming "PERVERT!!!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Arashi finally got to the hospital he instantly went up to see Hinata, but just as he was about to go in he saw that someone was in there with her. After waiting a minute or two the person stepped out of the room to reveal himself. It was no other that Hiashi Hyuuga, looking down he saw that the young Himura was standing in front of him.

"Arashi-san I would like to personally thank you for saving my daughter's life. I was told that if not for your efforts and aid she would be dead. The Hyuuga are not indebted to you, if you ever need a favor do not hesitate to ask me." He said with a smile.

"You are quite welcome Hiashi-sama, I can not think of what I would do if I hadn't of helped her." Hiashi just smiled as he patted the boy on the shoulder and moved on to go home.

"**Hey Arashi, you do know that you basically just told Hinata's father how much you like her."** Arashi then went white at what his tenant just informed him of.

'CRAP!! He's going to kill me the next time he sees me!'

"**I really don't think so; he did smile when you said it. I actually think he likes you."**

'Whatever, I'm going to see Hina-chan so disconnect yourself or something.'

"**Why are you finally going to tell her how you feel?"**

'I don't know, maybe. I want to but I don't know how to do it right.' He then noticed that Yondaime had cut himself off. So he went into the room and sat down in the chair next to her bed.

After sitting down he looked up to see he lying there peacefully sleeping. He then decided to stay there and wait for her to wake up. But after a while he succumbed to sleep and fell asleep with his head on the side of her bed and his hand had somehow snaked its way into her's.

No sooner had he fallen asleep did he find himself in his mindscape looking at the Hokage in his mind. "What the hell, I want to get some sleep and dream not train with you!"

"**Oh well, you need to train hard all the time. So what are you mad I dragged you away from a possible dream about your precious Hina-chan??"** He said making a kissy face to the Himura.

They trained into the night, Arashi was being taught a jutsu that Yondaime felt would devastate Arashi's opponent in the final round. Once he had the basics down Yondaime let him take a break. Arashi then looked at him with questioning eyes. "Yondaime…did you have any family?"

He was shocked at the question and really didn't want to answer it completely so he decided to leave parts of it out. **"Actually yes I did, I had a wife and a son. But I would rather not talk about my son right now. Maybe later I'll tell you about him."** Arashi had a discouraged look on his face. **"But lucky for you I did know your family."**

"Y-You knew my family? Who?"

"**Well specifically I knew your mother the most."** Arashi took on a confused look. **"She was on my genin team when I trained under Ero-sennin. She was a woman of exceptional talent. Her name was Kenshi Himura; she was an expert in weaponry and genjutsu. She was extremely powerful, and was looked on as a prodigy of the Himura clan. I have never met anyone other than myself or Naruto who cared for this village more than your mother. She was kind, caring, and compassionate to her friends and lover ones. But if anyone would threaten the people she cared about she would be relentless and ferocious. Something I think you have as well, a good trait. But a bad one if you're on the receiving end, I remember I once made fun of your father when they started dating a few too many times and played for it with a broken arm!" **He said as he broke out in laughter and rubbed his left arm.

"So did you know my father as well?"

Yondaime nodded. **"Yes I did but not as well as your mother, you see they both had know each other most of their lives since they were of the same clan. So I figured that they would eventually get together, I saw all the signs of affection between the two. Just like a little someone I know. But anyway, his name was Sano Himura and he was also looked on as a prodigy of the Himura. A fierce warrior Sano was, he was unrivaled in taijutsu and was the closest anyone had gotten to unlocking the Kekkei Genkai in generations."**

Arashi was soaking in all the information about his family like a sponge. "What else?"

"**He was an excellent strategist and had incredible stamina and chakra reserves. He and your mother finally started dating when my team finally became Chunin, they were so deeply in love it creped me out sometimes. But time went by and their love only seemed to grow by the day. They eventually got married the day before we were promoted to Jonin and when Sano became the head of the clan. We then got our own genin teams and didn't see that much of each other for a while. Your father was actually the sensei of Gai, which is where he and Kakashi's 'rivalry' started actually.**" Arashi couldn't help but laugh at that. **"But believe me I think that if there was one person who hated that green jumpsuit of his the most, it would have to be Kenshi!"**

Arashi was rolling on the floor laughing. "So…" He then got a little down. "Did my Father die fighting the Kyuubi?"

"**Unfortunately yes, all of your clan was killed by Kyuubi. But please don't think too much about that fact, dwelling on the past never does one good. But as for your mother she died in child birth with you right after she named you after me."**

"Why after you?"

"**Well mainly because of when I sealed myself to your soul I kind of made you take on some of my characteristics and the most prominent were the eye. She saw then and instantly knew you were to be named after me, because she knew what I was doing when I sacrificed myself to seal the Kyuubi.**"

"Yondaime, thank you for letting me know about them. I hope you can tell me about your family one day. But I should wake up; Hina-chan might be up now."

Yondaime smiled as he spoke. **"I would like that, but it is not for now. You have much to do in the next month. Also by the way Hinata has been awake for a while now and had been playing with your hair. Did you know before you fell asleep you moved your hand to hold hers??"** The Hokage said playfully.

"WHAT!?!? Why didn't you tell me earlier!?!?! Wait, why is she playing with my hair, has she let go of my hand?" Yondaime just laughed as Arashi woke up to the sight of Hinata suddenly turning very red at being caught stroking his hair. He then looked down to see that she was still holding his hand tightly. He simply smiled. 'She does like me. I'll tell her after the Exams are over.'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(Hokage Office)

"This is very big news, with Yondaime sealed inside Arashi he is no doubted going to be trained by him on many jutsu. Probably similar to what you were taught Kakashi-san, but since he has been with the boy his entire life and from what we were told he likes Arashi; I think that he will learn some of Yondaime's more powerful jutsu."

"I agree, to think that there could be someone else who could use that jutsu. It is going to strike fear into the hearts of all of Konoha's enemies. I am just afraid if Sensei would tell Arashi the truth about Naruto." Said the Copy Ninja.

"Yes, but they have been the best of friends for many years. They came together out of misery, I doubt that if either one found out about what was sealed inside the other that it would change things negatively. I actually think Naruto would be overjoyed because first off there would be someone with the same thing as him that he knew. Also because it would make Arashi the closest thing to a brother he could possibly get, plus he could get to know his father." Sandaime said with a large smile.

All of a sudden the said blonde boy burst through the doors and stopped pointing a finger accusingly at his sensei. "HA!! I finally found you, so are you going to train me?? Please!?!?!"

Kakashi could only sigh and shake his head. "No I can Naruto I'm sorry."

"You're probably ditching me to go train Sasuke-teme!!!" He yelled.

"Well I'm not going to lie, so yes I am. It's funny though Arashi said pretty much the same thing when we spoke earlier. But anyway I have already arranged for an old friend of mine to train you, Arashi, and Hinata when she is released from the hospital in two days."

"Cool, is he strong?? How come I have to lose two days of training? Can't he train me personally before everyone trains?"

"Slow down Naruto, yes he is strong. Stronger than me, and he can't train you yet because he isn't back to the village yet. Give it some time you need to learn to be patient, you could really learn from Arashi. Now get out of here I'm sure Hinata would like to see you as well. Arashi went over there after we talked."

Naruto only laughed a bit. "No thanks Kakashi-sensei, I'd rather leave them alone right now they should talk about some things." He said with a wink as he left Kakashi laughing at what his student had said.

"What is that so funny Kakashi-san?" Asked the elderly Hokage.

"Well you see Arashi and Hinata both have deep feelings for each other but are both too afraid to bring up the subject and tell the other how they feel. On Arashi's part he is just too dense to see that Hinata loves him."

"Is that so, very interesting." He said with a smile. 'Hiashi you sly devil you.'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hinata had awoken a couple minutes prior and had noticed that her object of affection was fast asleep sitting next to her bed and was holding her hand! 'By Kami he's holding my hand!! What do I do? What do I do? Does this mean he likes me or is it something that just happened in his sleep?'

Without her noticing she had begun to stroke his blonde and brown hair. A smile crept onto her face along with an incredible blush. Then she felt him stir a little bit and open his eyes, he was staring directly at their hands but wasn't doing anything. As soon as Hinata realized that he was awake and aware of what was going on she jerked both of her hands back and started poking her index fingers together nervously. "Gomen, gomen Arashi-kun…I…I d-don't k-know…" She had absolutely no idea what to say so she just shut up and stared at the sheet that was covering most of her.

Arashi was embarrassed yes, but he had just figured out that Hinata liked him so he was slightly calmer. He decided to change the subject quickly to spare them both from where the conversation was going, he didn't want to tell her just yet. He wanted to make it nice. "Anou Hina-chan I have some good news for the team! Kakashi-sensei has arranged for us to get a temporary trainer while he trains Sasuke for the finals. We are going to be starting training when you get released from here."

"Anou…A-Arashi-kun, w-when w-will I get r-released?" She asked knowing that she had received some serious damage during the fight and that she didn't want to cost Arashi valuable training time.

"In two days!!" He almost yelled out of excitement.

"H-How is it t-that soon? I k-know I was hut b-badly."

He then took on a Naruto like smile and rubbed his neck. "Well you see when you finally fell down after we stopped Neji; I ran over and used a medical jutsu I learned. Apparently the doctors here said that I healed up most of the major damage so their work was much easier." He then got a very serious look. As little pools of liquid started to form under his eyes. "They said that if I hadn't helped you, you would have died. I'm so glad I did!"

Hinata was shocked, Arashi had saved her life and now she was going to be released in two days to train with him and Naruto under some new trainer. She didn't know what to do so before she knew what was going on she had her arms wrapped around him. "Arigato Arashi-kun." When she finally realized that she had for the first time initiated a hug she instantly fainted and fell back on to the pillow in a blissful stupor.

Arashi was taken back by the hug and once again found a indescribable warmth in the gesture. But when she fell back he smiled as he got up to leave. 'She must be really tired, she needs to rest up if he is going to be training us. I better go find Naruto, especially before he finds me in here. He would probably poke fun at me for it or something.' Quickly Arashi wrote down a little note for Hinata when she woke up saying he went to see Naruto and would be back when she was released.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Later that night Arashi had met up with Naruto and decided to head over to Ichiraku's for some dinner. After gulping down their normal 15 or so bowls they got to talking. "So did Kakashi-sensei tell you who will be training us?" Asked the blonde while downing a bowl of Ichiraku's best.

"Well yeah, but he told me to keep it a secret from you." He then laughed knowing that it would push Naruto over the edge.

Naruto was going to explode on Arashi and get him to tell him but he then remembered what Kakashi had told him about needing to be more patient. He smirked knowing that Arashi was expecting a reaction out of him. "Fine then keep your secrets I'll find out in a couple days anyway."

He looked over to see Arashi had dropped his chop sticks and was staring at Naruto with his mouth wide open. When he finally got his composure back he blurted out. "Who the hell are you and what happened to Naruto??"

Naruto the burst into laughter. "You see Kakashi-sensei told me that I'm too impatient and that I needed to work on it. So I figured I'd try it out."

"Wait a minute you actually listened to what Kakashi-sensei had to say??" Naruto simply smiled.

Then a person sat down next to them with a lot of bandages covering his forehead and the left side of his face. He then glanced over at the two warily, but Arashi saw the red triangle tattoos on his face and could tell why he was being wary. "What are you up to Kiba?" He asked getting Naruto to whip around to see the Inuzuka.

Kiba was looking down in a manner that looked more like Hinata than what Kiba would do. Slowly he raised his head to look at Naruto. "Well I figured you two would be here so I came to tell Naruto something." Naruto tensed up for a challenge from the defeated dog boy. "I-I'm sorry, for the things I said to you during our match. It was wrong to insult you like that, I'm afraid Sasuke's attitude rubbed off on me a little too much."

"Don't worry about it Kiba, we're still friends. But I should apologize also, I hadn't tested that last jutsu against anything yet so I didn't know how powerful it would be. I could have killed you and I'm sorry for that." Naruto said while taking a slightly saddened look.

"As you said don't worry about it. But that jutsu is also why I came here. If you don't mind could you show me it so I can see just how bad I got beaten."

Naruto just laughed and told them to follow him; they paid for the ramen and went off into the nearby woods to have a safe place to test out the jutsu. When they finally got deep in the forest Naruto told the others to back up as he lined up a tree in front of him. "Here we go, watch closely." He did a couple hand signs then concentrated his chakra around his forearms. The mini cyclones appeared just like in the match the earlier the day before. Sliding them over each other in the same manner as before he pulled them hard against each other and said. "Futon: Wind Slash Jutsu!!" He then pulled his arms thought and a stream of jagged chakra shot out striking the tree in front of them. But then something unexpected happened, it cut straight through the tree; cleaving it in two clean pieces still in stuck together in the ground. But the chakra kept going in a straight path and continued to do the same to about 7 trees behind the intended target, finally stopping after about 50 feet of destruction.

Kiba and Arashi were both shocked at the power behind the jutsu, if Kiba would have been actually hit with the jutsu during his fight he would have died a quick death. Kiba still in a shock thanked Naruto for the demonstration with a weird look of fear and admiration on his face, and then he left. "Anou…Naruto, could you teach me how to do that? It looks awesome!"

Naruto was more than proud of himself. "Your starting to sound like Hinata the way you asked that!! But of course I'll teach you, what are best friends for??"

For the next couple hours Naruto instructed Arashi in how to do the Wind Slash. Eventually he was able to master it to the degree Naruto had done it, but he only sliced 6 trees in half instead of 7.

But when he had finished with it and they were turning to leave they both heard what sounded like clapping. Turning around they were both startled to see a rather large toad sitting in a nearby non-sliced tree with an older looking man with long white hair, red lines going down from his eyes, strange clothing, and a forehead protector that had the kanji for oil on it. "I take it that you are Naruto Uzumaki and Arashi Himura." 'Hmm, Arashi's son and the first Himura to activate the Shekkeigan in three generations, this should get interesting.' "From what Kakashi tells me you two have lots of potential along with your other team mate, where is she?"

"Hinata-chan is still in the hospital, anyway who are you?" Asked the perplexed blonde.

Suddenly the toad hopped down from its perch in the tree to right next to them. "Who am I? I am the Myouboku Mountain's Monk of the Toad spirits. Also known as the Toad Hermit. One of the Legendary Sannin…Jiraiya!!"

Naruto leaned into Arashi and said. "More like Ero-sennin, he just looks a dirty old pervert. I bet he reads those dirty books Kakashi-sensei reads."

Jiraiya and Arashi both fell down when they heard what he said. Jiraiya hadn't been called that since Yondaime last saw him. 'Damn, why does that family continue to call me that!!? Hopefully Arashi will speak to me with more respect.'

Arashi was rolling on the ground laughing at the fact that Naruto had come up with the correct nickname for him. "Well Naruto, Ero-sennin is apparently what the Yondaime called him when he trained under him. Also he doesn't read those book; Kakashi-sensei told me he is the one who writes them!! Isn't that right Ero-sennin!?!"

Jiraiya simply fell back to the ground at now having two new students that called him that cursed name. 'Of all the luck I get his son, and a kid named after him. You curse me with that name even after death Arashi!! Now I need to go say hello to Sarutobi-sensei and get the info on all these kids. See what contract they would be suited for.' "Don't call me that!! Anyway, whenever Hinata gets out of the hospital meet me at the western hot springs and we can begin training." He then disappeared in a flash of leaves and wind.

"Hey, Ero-sennin get back here!!!" They both yelled. 'This training is going to be weird at best!' Thought the Himura.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Sorry chapter is a little short, but there will be more next chapter. I have now decided on Arashi's summon and I agree with the most of you who told me what you thought.**

**If you have any idea about what would make that story better and stuff please tell me, also if you think up a cool jutsu please tell me and I might just work it in.**

**Other than that I will keep up my threat from last time. REVIEW OR I'M GOING TO HIT YOU WITH A CHIDORI TO THE FACE!!!**


	11. A Month with the Toad Sage!

**Review Reply:**

**R.A.G. 94:** Well it is there because they are two of the main characters not b/c they are together. So sorry to confuse you, but please continue to read and review. Also yes I plan to pair someone up with Naruto, it's going to take a little tweaking to get her in Konoha but I think it will work.

**Edengrave: **Well I know what you are talking about and I am getting to that, I'm planning on making it more of a rivalry and extensions of Naruto's powers after the defeat of Gaara. So look out for it, but I really do like the idea of using the laser jutsu in a variation like the ones you said. So thanks for your input and please continue to review!

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ohayo Hina-chan!!" Arashi yelled as he approached his favorite kunoichi. She had finally gotten out of the hospital with a clean bill of health. Personally she had never felt better, her life had been saved by the one she loved and he had fallen asleep next to her holding her hand. She had been on cloud nine ever since his visit, When she was first released she had been ordered to report home immediately. Initially she had dreaded talking to her father but she was completely surprised at what transpired at the Hyuuga compound when she arrived.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_Hinata arrived at her home a little while after being released from the hospital, the euphoria that she had been feeling for the last day and a half evaporated when she had been told her father wanted to speak with her._

_She was greeted rather warmly and with a smile by the Branch Family members when she entered the gates to the large compound. She shrugged it off and added it to the list of odd things that were going to happen that day. She the trudged to the meeting room her Father was waiting for her in, her head sinking lower and lower with every step closer to that dreaded room._

_When she slip the door open she found exactly what she had come to expect, her father sitting across the small table waiting for her with the ever present frown that had permiated his face since her mother had died. "Hinata, come and sit." He said in his usual self confidence sucking voice._

_She sat down across form him trembling slightly. After about half a minute she finally spoke up. "Y-You wanted t-to see me Otou-san?"_

"_Hai. I wish to speak with you about your performance in the preliminary round of the Chunin Exams." Hinata gulped audibly, she could tell she was going to be berated for her failure and her disgrace of the Main House by losing to Neji. Then her father said something that she had never been expecting. "I heard that you held your own against Neji-san for quite sometime and managed to land a direct juuken shot to his stomach."_

_She nodded in confusion. 'Is he complimenting me? I didn't hear anything about my failure or me disgracing the Main House, what is going on?'_

"_Good, then my sources are in fact accurate." Then he said something she had never heard her entire life other than from her sensei and team mates. "I'm proud of you Hinata-chan." A small smile then crept across the Hyuuga's face._

_Hinata almost fell down at those words, the words she had worked desperately had to hear. The ones that were the most important to her other than three little words she prayed to hear from a certain Himura one day. "Nani?"_

_Then something else was put into Hinata's strange occurrences list for the day. He father started to laugh. "Hinata-chan, I'm proud because you did well against Neji. He is vastly more gifted than you and you still managed to do well against him. You pushed yourself to your limits and did your best, and from what I hear you have found some one who believes in you." _

_She instantly light up to a tomato like color. "H-Hai, t-thank you s-so much for your w-word of k-kindness. Anou b-but I h-have t-training to s-start so I m-must excuse myself Otou-san." Hiashi nodded and motioned for her to leave. He still had that slight smile on his face as she got up, just as she was about to slide the door shut she said one last thing. "I-It is n-n-nice to see y-you smile a-again Otou-san." She then hurried out to meet up with her team mates at their normal meeting area at the bridge. _

_But what she didn't see was that after she said those words to her father, did his smile grow even bigger. 'I'm sorry I've been cold all these years Hinata, hopefully you will be seeing my smile much more as I wish to see your's as well.'_

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ohayo A-Arashi-kun." She said a little louder than normal as she approached the bridge to start her fist day of training under Kakashi-sensei's 'old friend'. She still didn't know who it was but every time she asked Naruto he would say that it was a surprise and then say something about a pervert under his breath. "S-So where is o-our new s-sensei?"

Naruto then popped up with a ramen cup still steaming in his hand. "Well you see he's still in a meeting with Oji-san so he'll be here in a little bit, just think of it like waiting for Kakashi-sensei!"

With that they al sighed at their regular sensei's chronic tardiness.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(Hokage Tower)

"HE'S WHAT!?!?!!" Screamed the white haired Sannin.

"Jiraiya, please calm down. This is a SS-Rank Village secret, I know you care deeply for your prize student but please treat this the same way as if he didn't have him sealed inside of him. I know it is a little strange how it came to be but the boy truly is amazing, even beyond where your Arashi was at his age. Plus Naruto is not far behind him, I think that is he were taught how to channel Kyuubi's chakra then he would become much more powerful. Also Hinata is extremely strong despite the personality issues she had dealt with in her life. I think you'll have fun with this group."

"Sarutobi-sensei, what possessed you to put together such a powerful team, aren't they supposed to be balanced in comparison to the others? You have Naruto who has the power of Kyuubi, Arashi who from what I hear is progressing at a rate unheard of in the Shinobi world, and Hinata who is the Heir to the most powerful clan in Konoha. Also from what you say her determination to grow and gain recognition rivals the other two's. There is no doubt that this group could easily become the next Sannin."

"Yes I know, but we didn't know of Arashi's 'room mate' until two days ago. Plus the complement each other extremely well. So what do you plan on training them in. Possibly his move?" Asked the Hokage.

"Oh no! I don't think they are ready for that! But I do think I know what to do, I think your idea of learning to use the chakra of the Fox is a good idea. Also maybe we can get Arashi to learn how to use…well Arashi's chakra. Plus I have a special jutsu that each of them can learn." He then pulled three scrolls out and smiled greatly.

"You really think that they can do that with 'them'??" Questioned Sandaime.

Jiraiya simply smiled. "If what you've told me is true that with out a question yes!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The three genin had been sitting there for about half an hour when with a just of wind the Toad Sage was now standing in front of them. This startled Hinata who jumped a little bit and came down somewhat in Arashi's arms. She then jumped even higher when she realized what she was doing, making the two start blushing madly. Jiraiya simple smirked as he saw the scene before him. "W-Who are you?" Hinata managed to get out when her attention came back to the white haired man in the strange clothing in front of them.

Jiraiya then went into his odd introduction dance just like he had done with Arashi and Naruto. When he was done Hinata had stars in her eyes, she couldn't believe that she was going to be trained by one of the legendary Sannin! But Naruto and Arashi were shaking their heads in embarrassment from the old pervert's odd dance. "Oi, Ero-sennin. What are we going to be doing for training, we need to get started! We do only have a month."

Hinata gasped at the nickname Naruto had given the almighty Shinobi. 'Maybe he doesn't know exactly who he is.' "Anou…Naruto-kun, you shouldn't speak to Jiraiya-sama with such disrespect."

Arashi then started to laugh which then added to the ever growing odd things list she had been compiling that day. "Well you see Hina-chan, we both know that he's a Sannin and all but he really is a pervert. You know that dirty book Kakashi-sensei is always reading?" She nodded in disgust at the memory of that accursed book. She had always hated it because it seemed to turn almost the entire male population of Konoha into perverts. Whoever had written them was diffidently on her list of hated people. "Well he is the one who writes them!"

She then fell over from shock that the Sannin in front of her was the one responsible for the virtuous downfall that the males of Konoha were going through. Then Naruto spoke up. "See Hinata-chan, Ero-sennin is just a dirty little pervert!"

"I AM NOT!!" Jiraiya erupted in anger.

"Then what are you?" Asked the Himura.

He then started to move his hands in a kneading fashion as if he were doing something rather perverted. "I'm a BIG one!" A perverted look swept across his face as he laughed, making Hinata hides behind Arashi.

"Well whatever size pervert you are, you better stay away from Hina-chan."

Jiraiya then looked very offended. "Hey kid, I like women!! Not little girls, I am NOT a pedophile!! Don't get me wrong, Hinata-san is going to be a very beautiful young woman. So don't worry about me."

Hinata was as red as a beet from the compliment, and Arashi had a nose bleed starting from imagining what Hinata might look like in a couple years. He thought she was already beautiful, he was in bliss thinking about the future. He then snapped out of his day dream and asked the pervert about their training while whipping the blood away from his nose. "So what are we doing for training? So kind of crazy destructive jutsu!?!"

Jiraiya didn't say anything but motioned for them to follow him. When they stopped they were standing next to a stream that had a rocky beach on one side of it. "To answer your question Arashi, yes. The jutsu I will be teaching each of you could be very destructive depending on how you use it. But we won't be doing that today; today we will be doing this." He said as he gathered chakra to his feet and walked out onto the stream.

All three were watching and were reminded about the fight between Kakashi and Zabuza. "So how do we do it? Is it just like the tree-walking jutsu?" Asked the blonde.

"Well yes and no." The three took on confused looks. "Well it is in the respect that you gather the chakra to the same place but it is different in the use of the chakra. With the tree, you used chakra to stick yourself to the trunk. But in this jutsu you use it to repel with a constant and even flow of chakra. It is much harder because of the way that the water moves."

The three then nodded and gathered chakra to their feet. Slowly they made their way to the stream hesitantly, not wanting to take a swim. They placed their feet on the surface and in bobbed slightly. But when they placed their second foot down all three of them plunged into the stream. Coming back up gasping for air because the chill of the water had sucked the air out of them, they then scrambled their way back to the shore. When they pulled themselves up they were soaked and were very cold.

Arashi then quickly made a small fire pit filled with wood and lit it with a small Katon jutsu. They warmed up a bit then tried again. Jiraiya was having a blast watching them dunk themselves each time. Finally after a few hours they started to get the hang of it. Arashi and Hinata had been able to walk about half way out and stay afloat for about 30 seconds. But poor Naruto could only stay up for about 15 seconds while having no balance while doing it.

Jiraiya frowned at Naruto's lack of progress. 'Something seems to be messing up his chakra flow.' He then called Naruto over to him for a little talk. "Naruto come over here there is something I want to see." He then led Naruto around the bend in the stream after telling Arashi and Hinata to continue training. When they were out of sight Jiraiya instructed the blonde to take off his shirt.

Naruto instantly got a strange look on him as he stared at the man. Jiraiya then got why he was looking at him like that and promptly hit him over the head. "BAKA!! I told you I like women, WOMEN!!!" Naruto then complied and removed his shirt. "Now mold some chakra for me."

Naruto did and the seal that contained the fox appeared on his skin. 'So this is the seal Arashi used. It's ingenious; if I know my student then he also used the same one on Arashi's soul. Lucky for him it won't become visible on the skin because of what it is sealed to.' Then a second seal appeared around the original one. 'Hmm, an odd numbered seal over an even one. So that is why his chakra control is shoddy, his and Kyuubi's chakra are merging in a weird way. This has to be the work of Orochimaru-teme. He is the only one I know who could do this.'

Naruto was getting a little uncomfortable with his new sensei just looking at him deep in thought. "So, what do I do now?" He asked as a strange blue light glowed behind Jiraiya.

"Well close your eyes and raise your arms." Naruto looked at him oddly. "It's a trust exercise and it will make you feel better!" Naruto shrugged and complied. The glow then became brighter as the flames around Jiraiya's fingers got bigger; suddenly he thrust his hand onto the seal. "Five Prong Seal Release!!" He said as Naruto shot back and skidded across the rocky beach.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?!?!" Naruto screamed in rage.

"Well I just hit a few pressure points. Go ahead, try the jutsu now." Stated the Sannin with a smile.

Once again Naruto complied; he then walked right out to the center of the stream with ease. He then started jumping up and down. "YATTA!! I gotta tell Arashi and Hinata!!"

"Naruto wait, I need to talk to you about something." He walked over and sat down next to the old man. "Naruto have you ever felt the presence of another chakra inside you?"

Naruto then looked ashamed. "S-So you know then?" Jiraiya nodded with a smile and patter the boy's head. He then didn't feel too bad about talking with him about it. "Yeah, there was this one time I felt Kyuubi's chakra flowing through me. I had this extreme power and I totally kicked this Haku guy's ass. I guess I would have to say that it's a red chakra while my normal chakra is blue. Oh also I felt it during the second test in the exams, but then I was hit with this weird purple fire in the stomach by some guy and have had trouble molding my chakra since then."

"Hmm, I see well that guy who did that to you is my old team mate Orochimaru. He is a really bad person and you're lucky to still be alive after a fight with him. But what I think we should do is to try and get you to be able to control Kyuubi's chakra. You have near limitless stamina and immense chakra reserves. You have trouble with fine tuning your chakra control, but you can do several jutsu that even some Jonin can't."

"Yeah, then what can I do?"

"I'm getting to that; you need to focus on using the most chakra you can instead of learning to limit yourself. That way you can use more powerful jutsu than most people. You and Arashi can use this method to become even more powerful."

"Wait, how can Arashi use it too? I have Kyuubi inside me, how can he do it too?"

Jiraiya almost smacked himself in the face for saying what he did. 'Well Arashi is…special. Well anyway let's get back over there and see how they are doing." He quickly ran over around the bend so Naruto wouldn't prod deeper to find out things.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Arashi and Hinata had been working at the water-walking for quite a while and had finally got it to where they could stand calmly on top of the water's surface. Hinata had a much easier time doing this simply because she was a Hyuuga and she had been trained for years on chakra control. She was actually surprised how fast Arashi had caught on, but then again it was Arashi she was thinking about and he tended to show her that he shouldn't be underestimated with most of the things her did.

After some more practice both of them were able to move around with ease. Soon enough they were jumping around and doing some mock taijutsu so they would be able to fight while on water. They had just walked back to the shore when Jiraiya came running around the bend to them with Naruto hot on his tail yelling at the old pervert. "Hey Ero-sennin, we got the water walking down and were even able to do some taijutsu while doing it!"

Jiraiya was impressed; he hadn't figured that they would have gotten it on the first day. But he would soon learn that that group shouldn't be underestimated. "Well then if you are sure you have it I guess I can start teaching you the jutsu I was planning. I hadn't figured you would have gotten the jutsu in one day so let's head back and get a real bath. Not just falling in the stream." He said with a laugh, a soak in a hot spring sounded wonderful to them all.

Sure Hinata felt a little lonely in the female baths by herself but she was enjoying herself very much. All the tension in her muscles vanished and she felt at ease. Then her mind started to drift to the other bath that her beloved Arashi was. She then started to bleed slightly from her nose. She then jumped at the fact she was thinking those things about him, wondering what he looked like without a shirt off…and other things. 'No! Bad Hinata, don't think about those things!! You hate Jiraiya's books for making the guys of the village think that way so don't start yourself!!'

She was hearing some small things from the other bath but mostly Arashi and Naruto yelling at Jiraiya for trying to go off and peep at some women in one of the other baths. Then they al started laughing as a comment on the toad that was in there with them was made. Hinata let out a small giggle.

She was listening intently trying to feel like she was a part of the fun it sounded like they were having. Then she heard Naruto speak up. "So Arashi, what's going on with you? You going to tell yet?" That talking was interrupted by lots of splashing and cursing from Arashi and something about that someone might hear.

"Naruto what are you talking about?" Said a deeper voice that obviously belonged to Jiraiya.

"Well you see Arashi is really in l..." Then there was the sound of someone being held underwater and that person desperately trying to get some air. 'What the hell was that for?? I was just answering a question!!"

"I told you to shut up about that, I'll get to it when I see fit and it's not NOW!! SO drop it!!!" Yelled a very embarrassed and pissed off Himura. Hinata then heard Jiraiya chuckle and say some thing about young people. "Anyway who is it that you like Naruto? I've always wondered, it's almost like you don't want people to know!"

Hinata then got very interested; it was true Naruto had never talked about someone he liked. Sure he said in the academy that he liked Sakura but that was just an attempt to get Sasuke mad. She wondered why he wouldn't talk about it; after all she talks with him about how she feels about Arashi all the time. She was just thankful he hadn't brought that up. She then heard Naruto starting to stutter. "W-Well i-it's none of y-your business!"

"Why are you so afraid to tell us, is it someone we know?" Questioned Arashi.

"Hey I don't know why you think I want to know, I'm just sitting here. Plus Naruto probably doesn't want people picking on him about it."

"Is it something like that Naruto?"

"No!!" He paused then sighed heavily in defeat. 'Great now I can hear who he likes!' "Well I don't want to tell because if you haven't noticed…Arashi! I can tell when someone really likes another person. Even when they try to hide it. But despite that I can't tell if who I like would like me. I've only seen her a couple times at a festival but I couldn't get a read on her."

"Really, you can tell? Like who?" Asked a weirdly interested Jiraiya. 'He probably wants to use Naruto to see what floosies would get with him.' Hinata scoffed from the other side of the barrier between the two baths.

Naruto sighed once again. "Well the first one is obvious even an idiot could see it." Jiraiya then laughed hard in agreement, and then Hinata heard Arashi hit Naruto hard. "Well the other one is pretty obvious because they are dating; Ino and Chouji. Then it starts to get a little more subtle. Like how TenTen like Neji." Hinata gasped at that, she hadn't noticed it and she saw TenTen from time to time when she came and got Neji for his team training. 'How could I have missed that?' "Well then there is also the fact that YOU caught her eye at how you handled Kabuto in the prelims."

Suddenly they felt a very odd and strong killing intent. Hinata realized it was her that was letting it off so she tried to calm herself. "Whoa…that was weird. Well whatever as I was saying. Well on from there is the fact that Lee likes Sakura but everyone knows that. Then it gets really hard, well there is one I kind of stumbled upon but I promised not to tell." Hinata was wondering if it was her he was talking about and if not then who? "Also I noticed how Asuma-sensei sometimes looks at Kurenai, and how she does the same. I think that they are just hiding the fact that they are together."

Hinata was startled at that, her old escort to the academy and the Hokage's son, it was something big. She then heard the deep voice again. "That is a true gift Naruto, and I'm sure you get amusement from tormenting people with the knowledge you get from your observations."

"Yeah, I'm a lot smarter and observant than people give me credit for." Hinata was still startled at the things she had just heard but she was still wondering about who Naruto liked, it was almost if he gave up that info just to dodge the question. "Well we should probably get out now; I don't want to be a prune for training tomorrow! I can't wait to learn this new jutsu!!!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It had been a hard night for Arashi; he didn't get as much sleep as he wanted too. The entire time that Naruto had been talking about his 'observations' in the hot spring, he kept getting this nagging felling that someone was listening. He had been afraid that maybe Hinata had heard something about his feelings or had picked up on the hints Naruto was throwing out. He didn't want her to hear it before he told her, but that was what kept him up that night.

He kept running scenarios of what might possibly happen in his head, they were good most of the time because he had figured out that she liked him. But there were the occasional bad ones where his read was wrong and it all turned out terribly. He finally got to sleep where he had a very nice dream about Hinata. Little did he know that she was dreaming about him also.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The four ninja were now back at the stream that they had been at the previous day. It was all the same except for the scrolls that Jiraiya was now carrying. "Anou…Jiraiya-sensei, what are we doing today and w-what are those s-scrolls for?"

The Toad Sage smiled as he looked down at the Hyuuga. "Well today you will be learning the jutsu that gave me the name of Toad Sage!" He then bit his thumb and did several hand signs. "Summoning Jutsu!" He said as he slammed his hand onto the ground. In a puff of smoke a large toad appeared with Jiraiya riding on top in another ridiculous pose.

Naruto was ecstatic; he thought being able to summon a toad would be awesome! But Arashi and Hinata were questioning it. "So you are going to teach us to summon…toads?" Said the Himura.

"Yes and no again. I'm going to teach Naruto to summon toads. I have two other summoning contracts here for you two."

The other two were ecstatic now; they wanted to know what animal they would summon. "Well what are they contracts for?? What do we get to summon?"

Jiraiya didn't respond and just rolled out the toad contract in front of Naruto. "Now Naruto you need to sign your name in blood and then mark it with your finger prints." Naruto bit his thumb and wrote his name out on the scroll, he then spread blood over his other fingers and pressed them all down at the bottom of the paper. When he was done the writing glowed red and then faded away. "Good, you are now contracted with the toads. Now observe the hand signs."

Jiraiya focused on Naruto and explained the seal sequence. Naruto preformed the hand signs after putting some blood on his palm. "Summoning Jutsu!!" He said as he slammed his hand down just like his sensei. But when the smoke cleared there wasn't a toad like there had been with Jiraiya. There was a large tadpole flopping around on the rock it had been summoned on.

Everyone stared bug eyed at it in shock. Finally Jiraiya spoke up. "You have NO TALENT WHAT SO EVER!!!! You need to push a lot of chakra into it to get a larger summon you BAKA!!!" He then smacked Naruto over the head and stormed off to the other two. "Keep working on it Naruto!"

As Jiraiya was coming over their way Arashi managed to get a glance at the toad scroll. 'Hey there is someone named Arashi on there, he was the person who signed it before Naruto did and after Ero-sennin. Hey Yondaime, is that you Arashi Namikaze?'

"**Yes that is me; the Toads are a very good summons. I think Naruto will do very well with them. In my fight with Kyuubi I relied on Gamabunta the Toad boss heavily to help. He is the reason I got close enough to do the seal jutsu."**

'Well that's cool and all but I don't think I would want toads so I'm glad Naruto got them.' The other two were still slightly taken back at Naruto's failure with summoning a toad. "So what do we get to summon?"

Jiraiya looked at them trying to find the right words. "Well the two contracts I have here and actually ones that haven't been seen in Konoha for quite some time. I'll start of with you first Hinata. Judging by what I think you can do and with what the other's summons are going to be I decided to give you the contract with the Eagles." Her eyes went wide at those words, she had heard of the Eagle summon before but it was more in the fairy tales her mother used to read her. It was said that they were majestic, powerful, and beautiful. Also that the Eagles were very picky with who they let summon them, that is why not many people have been allowed to summon them.

"A-Are you s-sure that you w-want me to summon Eagles? A-Am I worthy of s-such a distinguished s-summons?" She said with her head down expecting him to realize he was making a mistake and take the contract back.

She looked up to just see him smiling. "Hinata my dear I fully think that the Eagles will accept you. Don't worry about it, you will do fine." He then rolled out the scroll to her and had her sign it with her blood.

She then proceeded to mirror Naruto's had signs from when he had done it. She then pushed s lot of chakra into her hand and slammed it down on to the ground. To her surprise when the smoke cleared a four foot tall Golden Eagle was sitting there looking up at her. "Yatta!!" She said as the bird looked at her as if he was inspecting her.

Jiraiya was surprised that she was able to get such a large summon on her first try, he was expecting her getting the equivalent to how Naruto had done. But instead of her summoning an egg, she had gotten a middle level eagle. "Very good Hinata-chan, you did even better than I though you would!"

Then it was every one's turn to be surprised. "So you're the one who summoned me? Hinata was it?" Said the eagle in a very regal voice.

"H-Hai, I'm Hinata Hyuuga. May I ask who you are?" She said trying not to sound nervous.

"Oh a Hyuuga, and from the looks of it you're from the Main House too. Well I'm Earendur, son of Thorondor." Jiraiya was taken back, not only had Hinata summoned a large Eagle but the leader's son! "Well you seem like a good person Hinata-chan, I've got to go tell Otou-san about this so he can evaluate if you are worthy of summoning us. Let me ask you one question though. What is your nindo?"

Hinata was confused why Earendur would want to know that, maybe it was to judge her. "W-Well my nindo is t-that I never go back on m-my word." The Eagle nodded slightly and then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Whoa that was awesome Hina-chan!! Eagles are so cool; I hope I get something cool like that!" Then they all heard Naruto shout something and call over to them.

"Hey, hey, hey Ero-sennin come check it out!!" He ran over there thinking the boy had summoned an actual toad that time.

But when he got there all he saw was another tadpole and a smile on the blonde's face. "Why are you smiling? You still summoned a freaking tadpole BAKA!!"

"But this one had legs!!" He pointed to a pair of small legs on the tadpole. Jiraiya simply hit him again and trudged back over to Arashi.

Arashi and Hinata were both laughing at what had happened with Naruto. But now that Jiraiya was coming back over and Arashi was ecstatic to find out what summon he was going to be give. Jiraiya walked over and roller out the scroll not saying a word. When he looked down at it there was only one name on it, Sano Himura; his father. "B-But?"

Jiraiya laughed at his reaction. "This is the summon for the Wolves. They are quite possible the most selective creatures when it comes to who they let summon them. You have to have certain 'qualities' that the Wolves find important. Your father was the only person the Wolves have deemed fit to summon them, he truly was an amazing man, and I believe that you will be chosen too." He said with a smile

Arashi was taken back by what he had said. But he was also wondering what the 'qualities' were. He figured he would have to find out after he summoned one. So he bit his thumb and moved to sign the contract. "Now Arashi I'm sure that you are wondering what the qualities are and such. But the thing is that this contract is special, it will determine if you are worthy of being able to summon the Wolves. So sign it and stand back, it will decide on your characteristics, if your blood signature stays there then they accept you. But if it disappears they reject you, Orochimaru once tried to sign this contract but he was rejected as was I. But I have faith in you."

Now Arashi was a little nervous, he wanted to be connected with his father more but if two Sannin didn't have the qualities needed then what chance did he have? He decided to go for it and wrote his name down in his blood and stamped his finger prints down at the bottom.

The blood then began to flash with a strange red light as the scroll began judging him through his blood. After about a minute of the light it seemed to fade and then a golden light flashed around his name and faded as well. Then nothing happened to his surprise. "Looks like I was right, congratulations on being the second person chosen to summon the Wolves." Arashi's new sensei said with a grin. He then walked up close to him and whispered so that only he could hear. "Don't worry about the 'qualities' I'll tell you after you tell her." Arashi's eyes went wide as a blush streaked across his face. "Now let's see you summon one!"

Arashi nodded after he brought his blush under control. He stepped back and did the hand signs after putting some blood on his palm. "Summoning Jutsu!!" He yelled as a large plum of smoke appeared in front of him.

When the smoke cleared in front of him stood a wolf of normal size, it had a brilliant silver coat of fur. But also it had silver eyes as well; it looked just like his eyes after he activates them. The wolf took a look at Arashi and proceeded to bow low when he got back up he spoke. "Greetings Arashi Himura, I have been sent by Fenrir-sama to welcome you to the Okami family. We are now your allies for as long as you live and will help you protect anyone that you wish to. My name is Ragna, I was your father's personal summon and I hope I can serve you as well as I served him. It saddens me to know that he is gone, but now I have the opportunity to assist his son."

"Thank you Ragna-san, I am honored to have allies such as yourself and your kin." Arashi said trying to match Ragna's honorable speech. Then the wolf started to laugh.

"There's no need for such formal talk, I was just talking like that because I needed to at first. So from now on please speak how you wish to!" Said the silver wolf rolling around still laughing. "Anyway, welcome to the family Arashi. If you need anything you know how to get us, I'm sure Fenrir-sama would love to meet you and 'the one'." He then made a head movement to Hinata and then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Hinata was about to ask about what Ragna had said but then they heard a yell of accomplishment from Naruto who had been attempting a summoning after summoning while they were doing their own. When they all got over to where Naruto was sitting with a large grin on his face. "Hey Jiraiya! Who's this brat who summoned me? You find another protégé?"

"Hey Toad!! I'm not a brat; I summoned you so I'm your master!!! You should be respectful to me!!"

The Toad really didn't pay attention to Naruto; he simply hopped on top of his head and continued talking to Jiraiya. "So who is he Jiraiya, he does look a lot like him though!"

"His name is Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto this is Gamakichi, Gamabunta's son. By the way just because you summoned them doesn't make you their master. You need to show respect to the toads or they are just going to be like Kichi-chan here; rude and obnoxious!"

"HEY!! Pops said you weren't supposed to call me that around people Ero-baka!!" Yelled the small orange toad. "Anyway, now that you are contracted with us you're now a subordinate with Pops. It will be official when you share a drink with him, so summon him when you can." He then puffed away wile sticking his tongue out and Jiraiya.

"Well that was weird." Hinata said with giggle.

"Okay, I never thought that you guys would have been able to summon successfully on the first day. We do have a month, so our goal for training is to have you guys summon the bosses of your respected summons. It should make your chakra capacity go up significantly as well as work on your stamina. With that I think that we are done for the day, so let's go get some rest."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It continued normally for three weeks with them training everyday, gradually summoning a larger animal and working on their taijutsu. It was going fine for Arashi and Hinata but for Naruto he could only seem to get Gamakichi. Jiraiya had been trying to get Naruto to control Kyuubi's chakra but Naruto wasn't even trying to draw on it. So he took Naruto off to the side to have a talk with him. "Naruto, do know the reason for this jutsu for you?" He just looked at him questioningly. Jiraiya sighed at his student's stupidity. "Naruto the whole point is for you to learn how to tap into Kyuubi's chakra and use it as an asset for you. So that you could have near unlimited chakra!"

"But how do I do that?"

Jiraiya thought about it for a while. "Well how have you accessed it before?" Naruto then told the story involving Haku and how his rage made him exploding with power. "Well it seems like it happens when either you are feeling extreme emotions like when you thought Arashi died, and when your life is in danger. I think I know how to deal with this."

Naruto was sort of confused at what Jiraiya was getting at but he moved to follow him to wherever he was going. When suddenly the ground began to shake and the figure of a gigantic wolf appeared where they had left Arashi and Hinata.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(Five minutes earlier)

Arashi had just finished his summoning jutsu and a very large black wolf was standing in front of them looming a good 20 feet over them. After a short discussion and introduction Loki puffed away into smoke just like the rest of them had. "Kuso, why can't I get Fenrir? I'm putting so much chakra into it!"

Hinata was awed at the size Loki was and thought that summoning him was enough for the day. "Anou…Arashi-kun, you are doing so well. L-Loki-sama was huge; you can take a break for a while. I know I'm exhausted."

Arashi smiled from her concern but he knew that he needed to summon Fenrir; Ragna had said that he was anxious to meet him. "Arigato Hina-chan but I need to get this, and after all you managed to get Gwaihir last time you tried and he is the second in command! You have been doing amazingly, it's because you have such incredible chakra control and can put just the right amount in to summon them correctly. You just don't have enough chakra to get Thorondor yet. But I'll help you do it Hina-chan!" She blushed at his confidence in her. "Demo, I have to get Fenrir. Remember Ragna said that he really wanted to meet me."

Hinata can you please excuse me for a minute I need to meditate for a little bit so I can try again. He then concentrated and quickly found himself in his mindscape. It had changed drastically since the last time he had been there. Instead of there being a gigantic room that had Yondaime's cage it was a representation of the training area in the woods that they used when training by themselves. But what surprised Arashi was the absolute lack of a gigantic cage. He looked around for Yondaime but didn't see him yet, he did see many more memory paintings hung on random trees. But then he saw what sort of looked like a memorial for Hinata, there was several memory paintings and a couple statues of her. He blushed slightly at how much she truly meant to him.

He walked around the forest until he came out of it and into what looked like the training grounds that the bell test was done when they first became genin, but behind it there was a small comfy cottage that shouldn't have been there. 'Hey Yondaime!! Where are you?'

He was surprise to then see the door to the house open and Yondaime walk out of it. 'W-Where is the cage!?!?! How are you out did the seal break??'

Yondaime laughed quite loud at it and then simple held op his left arm, on it was a rather large metal handcuff with the kanji for 'seal' on it. **"You see, your mind has gotten more clear and a representation of the world around you. I also figured out how to manipulate my surroundings in here, but no the seal didn't break. I just manipulated it from a constraining cage gate to this handcuff; also I made a little house for myself. It's rather nice."** He said with a smile

'Well whatever, it does look nice. But I came here to ask you for your chakra, I need a lot to do what I want to do.'

"**Summon Fenrir right? Well you do know what qualities the wolves were looking for and why he wants to meet you, don't you?"** Arashi said yes to the first question but no to the second one. **"Well what they were looking for were a couple qualities. First and foremost is a natural ability to lead, like pack leader would need to be with the wolves. Then you would need to be intelligent and able to easily use other's abilities to your advantage in most situations. Basically very good team work, then you have to have the want to protect those people around you with your life if need be. But the most important is for you to have one person who you love above all else, one you would do absolutely anything for without question."**

As Arashi was hearing basically the description of the kind of person he was his mind was grappled by the last quality. 'Hina-chan.' He said barely audible.

Yondaime smiled as he brought forth his chakra. **"Yes that person is Hinata, so Fenrir is going to want to meet her as well. So be prepared for him to possibly say something about you loving her, it might ruin your plans for how you were going to tell her. But in the long run she won't care." **The yellow chakra then started to envelope Arashi as he felt the power flowing through him. **"Now go and summon that wolf, perhaps you could get him not to say anything about Hinata so that plan of yours can be put into action."**

Arashi was then thrust back into the real world, only seconds had passed so to Hinata it looked like he had simply shut his eyes when the same yellow chakra from the Forest of Death came from him. She quickly activated her Byakugan and watched the power start to flow through him, once again the chakra licked his hair as it had before but now it left several streaks of beautiful golden hair making it look like a rising sun. She was basically drooling at his new look, but then she saw something very strange. The place where the chakra was coming from looked like an odd spiral seal looking thing. Before she could look more she saw the chakra gather to Arashi's hand.

"Summoning Jutsu!!!!" He yelled as an explosion of smoke came from where he hit his hand. The ground started to shake and then they both looked up. In front of them stood a one hundred foot tall silver wolf that looked very similar to Ragna, even down to the eyes. "Fenrir…" Arashi said with a smile, knowing he had done it.

"Ahh, young Arashi! I am Fenrir, Lord of the Okami. Welcome to our family, since the scroll deemed you worthy of our trust and loyalty we shall be at your side when ever you need out help." The massive wolf's gaze then drifted over to the Hyuuga girl who was in complete awe at the size of the wolf in front of her. "You must be…"

Arashi spoke up before Fenrir could ruin his plans. "Yes that is her…but"

The wolf let out a loud laugh. "I see no worries Arashi. I won't ruin it for you, but girl I must say thank you for all the help you have given our ally. We both know he deserves it." The wolf said with a wide grin. "Arashi, I am glad that it is you that we are bound to. Your father was a great man, and I can see great things in your future." He gave them both a smile and then puffed away like the rest of the summons. Just after he disappeared Jiraiya and Naruto came tearing around the corner of the training area.

"Kuso!! I missed him; I've always wanted to speak with Fenrir!!" Jiraiya yelled. Looking down he then saw that Arashi had fallen asleep from the exhaustion of summoning Fenrir and Loki within 10 minutes. He looked very happy and a very small "Hina-chan…" escaped his lips as Jiraiya simply smiled and carried him back to where they were staying. When they got to the hotel room Jiraiya put Arashi down on the couch and spoke to Hinata. "Hey I have something that I need to do with Naruto, can you take care you Arashi for me for a while?"

Hinata's eyes light up at the chance to care for Arashi, it was a way she could show him that she loved him without having to tell him just yet. "Hai!" As soon as she said those words Jiraiya was off with her fully blonde friend. When they were gone she went over to where Arashi was sleeping peacefully like a baby. Without knowing it she was running her hands through his hair once again, if there was one thing she preferred about Naruto, it was his hair. She loved the blonde hair that the boy sported, now that Arashi seemed to be getting closer to having hair like Naruto she was basically drooling all over him. He was gorgeous, and she so in love that she didn't care if he woke up again while she was playing with his hair. Suddenly Arashi moved around because of Hinata's hair stroking, he had a big smile on his sleeping face, he then started whispering things in his sleep.

"Hina-chan…Hina-chan…" She was shocked that he seemed to be dreaming about her. "Keep doing that, it…feels good…mmmh." He mumbled as he curled up like a wolf and laid his head on Hinata's lap with a smile.

Hinata's face was inventing new shades of red when he put his head on her. Not to say she didn't want it, she was just shocked that he had done it. She sat there for what seemed like hours just playing with his hair. Soon enough she found herself growing tired, but just as she was about to fall asleep she whispered something to the sleeping Himura. "Don't you worry Arashi-kun, you-re safe with me." She then drifted off to sleep with him still lying on her lap.

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"So where are we going Ero-sennin?"

Jiraiya sighed at the mentioned of that nickname. "Naruto have lived a life without regrets?"

This threw Naruto for a loop 'What an odd question for Ero-sennin to ask me!' "Well now that I think of it…yeah!" He said with a smile.

"Well that's good, have you achieved all your dreams?" Asked the older man in the same weird tone.

"Well no, I'm going to be Hokage or ANBU Captain!"

Jiraiya smiled as he stopped next to some bushes. Then an evil smile crept across his face. "Good, so that gives you a reason to live. Now you only have to learn how to call out Kyuubi's chakra."

"Ero-sennin what are you …" He was then hit hard with a palm thrust that sent him flying through the bushes. He was screaming in surprise as he then saw the ground disappear and give way to a giant chasm. He then started to fall right down in to it.

'Forgive me Yondaime.' The white haired pervert thought as he watched his new student go plummeting into the chasm.

Naruto was screaming like crazy, he was frantically trying to grab on to the side of the chasm with his chakra with his feet but the walls were to wet from the rain the day before. Onward he fell, and then he realized what he had to do. 'I HAVE to call the Toad Boss here to help me! Otherwise I'm going to seriously die!!"

All of a sudden he found himself back in the flooded hallway that he had visited before. Except instead of being in the hall, he was in front of a gigantic cage. Then a pair of eyes light up behind it and the image of Kyuubi came into the light. Naruto wanted to talk some things over with his 'Room mate' but he didn't have the time so he got to the point. "Hey Kyuubi!! Give me your chakra, I need it!"

"**And why should I Kit?" **Naruto glared at her knowing that she knew. **"Fine, Fine. I'm impressed that you were able to come here on your own, and I admire your courage in demanding things from me of all demons! Take this chakra, think of it as rent for living in this body of yours. Also after this whenever you want to talk to me just reach out to me with your thoughts and we can talk."** She then laughed deeply as red chakra seeped out from the cage and wrapped around the boy.

He snapped his now red eyes open; quickly he went through the hand signs for the jutsu. Glowing red he screamed. "SUMMONING JUTSU!!!!" From his hand exploded chakra, then miraculously a gigantic toad materialized underneath him. He then landed on top of the toad's head with a smile knowing that he would live to see another day and kick Ero-sennin's ass!!

"Jiraiya!! Why have you summoned me here of all places?" Said the toad with agitation in his voice. He then saw Naruto sitting on his nose looking at him. "Hey kid, where is that old pervert? I need to know why he summoned me!"

Naruto looked at the toad oddly. "Anou, well you see…I summoned you." The toad then burst out in a very loud laugh.

"YOU?? Kid that is the best joke I have heard in a really long time!!"

"I'm serious; I fell down this chasm and summoned you so that I wouldn't die."

"Yeah right, anyway you better hold on tight I'm going to get us out of here!" Naruto then held tight as Gamabunta jumped straight up and out of the chasm, landing on the side of it and causing an earthquake. "So where is Jiraiya?"

"Baka Toad, I told you I summoned you!! So show me the respect I deserve for summoning you!!!" To say that saying that to the Toad Boss was a bad idea was an understatement. It was a really bad idea and by the end of the day Naruto would be regretting those words greatly.

"Why should I? You're so tiny that you probably couldn't even ride on me correctly!!"

"OH YEAH!!! Well I could stay on you all day; if I win then you have to officially become MY subordinate!!!!"

This really pissed the giant toad off, he wanted to show this runt just who was boss. So he tried just that, he jumped high with lots of force. But when he landed he was surprised to see feel that Naruto was still on him. This spurred a battle between the two that lasted all day, with Gamabunta trying to get Naruto off him and Naruto desperately trying to stay on. Jiraiya was sitting in a tree some ways away so as to keep a safe distance but he was smiling to himself at the way Naruto was acting. 'He's so much like you Arashi it's scary. Let's just hope he get's at least a little smarter.' He then erupted in laughter.

Everything looked like Naruto was about to win his little self bet but just as the sun was about to set he fell off the Toad's nose after managing to get back on with the help of a Kage Bunshin Naruto Ladder. Unconscious he plummeted from a height that even he would die from. Jiraiya a got worried but then Gamabunta shot his tongue out and caught the boy. Slowly he placed the boy down in front of him. "A couple minutes longer and you would have one brat." The toad boss said with respect apparent in his voice. Then the summoning contract flew out of a bush and rolled open to reveal Naruto's name on it. "There is no need for that Jiraiya; I know the boy summoned me. So is he really who I think he is?"

Jiraiya then came strolling out of the bush where he had been hiding. "Yeah, he's his son. I also think you noticed who he has inside him."

The toad simply nodded. "He is going to be an interesting one; no one has ridden on my head like that since Arashi." He said with a toady smile. "I guess I can do him a favor." Naruto was then picked back up and quickly carried to the Konoha hospital. When the doctors came running out to see what had caused the small earthquake to happen they only saw Naruto unconscious on the ground with a huge toad footprint behind him.

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**Yeah, so I'm back at school now so updates should be a little slower than the last week. But yeah I hope you all liked what I did in this chapter. If you think I left out what everyone else did then you would be right. That is going to be the focus for the next chapter.**

**So tell me what you think and all.**

**SOOOO REVIEW OR I'LL HIT YOU WITH A ****RAIKIRI**** TO THE FACE!!! (Take THAT Aurora of the Light!!)**


	12. Preparing for the Finals!

**Review Reply:**

**Dermon452**: Well the reason for that is that Arashi is really the central character, but in the anime and manga Naruto comes off as an idiot too. I'm making him better, so don't worry.

**Aurora of the Light:** Well when I think of wolves I think of Norse and Scandinavian Mythology, so I used names from that. Like Ragna is a cut off from of Ragnarok (The name for the apocalypse) and Fenrir is one of the names of the actual wolf being in the mythology. But fine I won't use ninjutsu.

**Quicksilv:** Well I hope you like how I use your gifts!

**Grapefruit.ninja:** I can understand not reviewing till now, but make sure to tell me what you think from now on with the updates. Plus when I get time I'll take a look at your fic! As for Naruto's interest…that is a secret until some things are dealt with first and then I can introduce her. But I will say that she is not an OC, that's all.

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto

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It had been a week since the entirety of Team 7 had gone off to the near by Hot Spring village to train with the famous Sannin, Jiraiya. Life around the village had been uneventful for the most part; all of the people who had been injured during the preliminaries had fully recovered and had been released. All except a certain Uchiha who had mysteriously vanished three days prior and had not been seen since.

Sakura was currently walking down the street with her remaining team mates. Shino had asked the two of them to accompany him for training for the finals, so naturally they agreed. Kiba had just been released but had been told not to get extreme in any training for a couple days. He was just happy to get outside and back into training; Akamaru was happily sitting on his head waiting the day of training that was sure to happen.

"Anou, Shino-kun, Kiba-kun do you have any idea where Sasuke-kun might have gone?" Asked their female team mate in a depressed voice.

"Actually I heard from Naruto and Arashi before they left that he was to be training with their sensei for the finals. So I wouldn't worry about him, it would take a lot to get rid of that cold bastard!" He laughed, but painfully remembered not to bad mouth 'The Glorious Sasuke' in front of his biggest fangirl. "HEY!! I did just get out of the hospital you know!!"

"Well if you can say such horrible things about my Sasuke-kun then you can deal with the punishments." She said matter-of-factly.

"Sakura-san, I do not think putting Kiba-san back in the hospital would be advantageous to my training. That is why you are accompanying me is it not?" Stated the bug user.

"Of course Shino-kun, you know I don't mean to hurt him." He didn't say anything in return. 'Sometimes I wonder if he is a bug himself, no personality at all. There are times I wish I had someone else with energy on my team like maybe Naruto of Lee-san.' Her thoughts were then brought back to the Green Beast and how he had protected her during the second exam. "…Lee-san." She unknowingly said out load.

"Lee? What are you thinking of someone other than Sasuke?" Stated Kiba, trying to get a rise out of her, and a rise he did get. She blew up at the insinuation that she would think of someone other that Sasuke. Lucky for Kiba Shino intervened by stating that they had arrived at the training grounds.

The next couple hours consisted of Shino training with his bugs by intercepting several Gatsuugas from Kiba and lots of weapon fire from Sakura. He also had Sakura try some genjutsu that their sensei had taught her. Shino used it as an opportunity to teach his colony how to interpret them and break out of them easily. Eventually they took a break and sat down to have some tea that Sakura had brought along with her much to Shino's secret delight.

Eventually they got to talking. "So Sakura, what's so bad about Lee anyway? He seems to actually care about you a lot. Like Naruto used to in the academy, but I think he moved on."

Maybe it was because she was tired or because of the way Kiba asked the questioned; but it actually made her think about it. "Well the only thing I can't stand would be his outfit and eyebrows! But now that I really think about it, I can't find that much wrong with him. Sure he can be a little over the top but that just shows his passion for things." Kiba had fully expected a stronger reaction from her so he refrained from teasing her and decided to see where he could get this to go. Shino outwardly looked no different but behind those glasses he was watching intently to see where she was going with this.

Sakura was lost deep in her thought of the green clad mini-Gai, when the tiniest blush came across her face. This didn't go unnoticed by her two observant team mates. "So Sakura-chan, would you like to go see what he's doing? I heard that he was back to training with Gai-sensei a little ways over."

Her head shot up, it must have been because she was so tired. On any other day she would have beaten the crap out of Kiba for talking like she was interested in Lee and not Sasuke. But for some reason she did want to see him, if only to thank him again for saving her in the forest. "That sounds nice Kiba-kun; do you mind Shino-kun?" He was already up and walking in the other training grounds direction so she took it as a 'no'.

After several minutes of walking Team 8 finally got to the area that Gai and Lee were said to be training at, but it seemed to be empty. "I wonder where Lee-san and Gai-sensei are?"

"They might have ended their training early today, but that does not sound like Lee-san and Gai-sensei's kind of work habit. I am sure that they will turn up soon Sakura-san." Shino said with his usual coldness, but he was correct. It was not like the two youth junkies to end so early.

"Yeah Sakura-chan, I'm sure he'll be here soon I wouldn't mind a small spar against him." The dog boy said oblivious of what Lee did to Gaara in the preliminaries.

When all of a sudden Lee burst forth from the bushes on the other side of the training grounds with a look of panic on his face. He had his normal training suit on but there was a new addition to it this day, there were gigantic weights attached to his arms and legs. From what Kiba could judge it looked like in all it was about 500 to maybe 550 pounds total. Moving as fast as he could he bolted to where they were standing watching him. "Why hello Sakura-chan and her team! It is nice to see you on this youthful day, but I must run before Gai catches up to me. We are having a most youthful day of training!"

Just as he turned to leave as look of horror went across Team 8's face. Behind Lee and gaining fast was what seemed to look like a rather odd collection of squirrels. But these squirrels didn't look like normal ones; they were much larger and more dangerous looking. There were tons, almost like an army of freak squirrels! Lee then zipped out of sight and back into the trees with the squirrel army close on his trail.

As soon as Lee was back in the forest the horror continued for Team 8, because at that moment a rather oddly dressed Gai came bursting out of the bushed mid leap. He was currently in his normal attire but with the addition of a tootoo that rivaled Sakura's hair. "YOSH!! THAT'S RIGHT LEE RUN!!! RUN WITH ALL THE SPEED YOUR YOUTH CAN GIVE YOU!!!!!" He then burst into a rather deranged laugh as he followed close behind the squirrel army.

When they were gone no one moved or said anything for what seemed like hours, but after ten minutes Shino spoke up. "I think that our training is over for the day, I know that I have been far too traumatized to continue today."

Kiba simply bolted as fast as he could away from the place they had seen that horrific training session. While Sakura simply fell down unconscious, her mind unable to comprehend the disturbing horror she had just witnessed. Shino sighed as he had his bugs life her up and carried her to her home. Even Shino couldn't stop the twitch of his eye that had suddenly manifested whenever he saw a squirrel.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Life for Neji hadn't been easy since the preliminaries ended. The first thing that had happened was told that he was going to have a talk with his Uncle Hiashi. When Neji walked into the meeting room he got the feeling that it was not going to be a pleasant meeting. But none the less he walked in with his familiar arrogant look and cold exterior. This only seemed to make the atmosphere of the room tenser, now Neji was getting an extremely bad feeling. "You wished to speak with me Hiashi-sama?" He said as he sat down across from the Head of the Clan.

"Yes Neji-san, I wish to discuss your performance in the Chunin Exams." Hiashi was trying to make an impact on his nephew, so was holding his emotions back.

"What about them Hiashi-sama? By now I'm sure that you have knowledge of my match with your daughter, I won and will continue on and defeat Naruto Uzumaki when the finals continue." Neji didn't want to have this conversation with Hiashi, he knew that he had been cold with his daughters for many years but Neji had almost killed her. Hiashi would have to be a true monster not to care for her even a little, and Neji knew better than to think he didn't.

"That is exactly why we must have this talk. Have you forgotten that it is your Duty to protect Hinata? It is your fate to stand behind her and protect her from harm. Yet you yourself are the one she needed protecting against." He paused so that Neji took in the importance of what he was saying. "You let your own personal feeling affect your duty, which is not something a Hyuuga should do."

"Yes Hiashi-sama, but what was I to do? Concede to her?"

"No, but you didn't have to Almost Kill her!" Hiashi was letting his emotions come through a bit and Neji was seeing that it had been a very…very bad idea to do what he had done to Hinata. "Now what do you have to say for your actions?"

Neji could only think of the things he had said to Naruto after his match. "It came out that way because she is a failure, she was born a failure and against someone like me she stood no chance. It is her own fault that she could not realize this inescapable fact, that failures like her and Uzumaki-san have no hope in defeating an elite such as myself."

Hiashi was fuming; he knew that his daughter had failed several times in her life. But she absolutely was not a failure; he had told her that and been hard on her so as to make her strong. He had realized all too late that doing so would not get the reaction he wanted, he was just being counterproductive. But when he said what he did about Naruto, the Yondaime's son, the Hero of the Village for holding the Kyuubi at bay, the son of his best friend and team mate! Hiashi lost what control he had on his emotions and did what he had never wanted to do to Neji.

The seal under Neji's head band burned brightly as Hiashi raised his hands into a hand sign. Suddenly Neji screamed in unimaginable pain, writhing on the ground in front of his uncle. After a couple seconds that would be burned into his memory Hiashi spoke up. "There are only so many insults about my daughter I can take, but when you insult the Hero of this Village you are insulting the very village that you swear to protect!" He sighed and got more control over himself. "There are a few things that I know and those are that Naruto Uzumaki is not a failure, you have no idea what he does for this village every day."

Neji had expected that the lash out had been for Hinata's sake, but Naruto's? He was confused and in pain. Hiashi moved to walk out of the room when he turned back and said something that would fuel Neji's desire to decimate Naruto, thinking him responsible for the pain he just went through. "Naruto should be given your respect, not your hatred."

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(2 Weeks till the finals)

"Human Boulder Jutsu!!" Chouji yelled as he rolled with immense power behind him. He shot out towards Shikamaru who was standing in front of him with his favorite hand sign in place.

"Kagemane Juts…Crap! I don't have enough chakra." He said as he jumped in the bushes near by.

"Shikamaru this isn't going to work, you need to get more into it." Said the bearded man with a cigarette in him mouth.

"I can't help that I'm out of chakra Asuma-sensei, this is so troublesome." The Nara said as he plopped down at the base of a tree and started watching the clouds. "Just give me an hour and we can get back into it." Asuma sighed knowing full well that there was next to nothing that could get him back into training at the moment.

He then noticed that his other student had mysteriously disappeared. About a quarter mile away the sound of two people in love could be heard. "Ino-chan, I don't think I could ever truly put into words just how much I love you." Chouji said as he planted a kiss on his beautiful girlfriend. She was beaming with a smile that could have melted any heart. He then took her hand and began to lead her away somewhere.

"Chouji-kun, where are you taking me?" She asked when Chouji untied her 'belt' and put it around her eyes.

"Now if I told you it wouldn't be a secret now would it?" He said teasing her.

They both continued Ino was trying to take in the surroundings with her other senses. She heard birds chirping and the sound of running water. But she also smelled something sweet, almost like the flower shop where she helped her parents out. "Are we there yet Chouji-kun?"

The only response was the feeling of his lips gently pressing against hers; she hadn't been expecting it so it threw her for a loop for a couple seconds. She then returned the kiss deepening it; she slowly wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer to her. His hands were resting on her waist as they wrapped around her as well, slightly Chouji's tongue made the smallest contact with Ino's lips. She understood and reacted with a tongue swipe of her own, this lead to a gentle dance of their tongues with each other. Ino had never kissed Chouji like this, and she liked it. A strange feeling was washing over her body, almost like every inch of her was on fire just from the touch of Chouji against her.

During the kiss Chouji had snaked his hands up and undid her forehead protector, putting it in his pocket he continued with their passionate kiss. He eyes were shut and she was in heaven at the moment so she hadn't noticed. He then slowly slowed down the kiss and pulled back from his love. A small moan escaped from her mouth accompanied with a "Chouji-kun." That was nothing more than a whisper.

"Ino-chan, you can pen your eyes, we're here." He said with a smile and a small kiss.

When she opened her eyes she was greeted by one of the most beautiful sights she had ever seen or even dreamed about. Before her was a field of beautiful purple lilies, her favorite flower and color. But amongst these beautiful flowers were hundreds of bright blue butterflies, She knew that this place must be special to Chouji because of his love of the graceful creatures. But what really took her breath away was a waterfall that was just off to the side of the field, with a rainbow coming off of it. There was only one thing that made the place perfect, and that was her love standing next to her with his arm around her. "Chouji-kun…this place is beautiful! What is it?"

Chouji let a small chuckle out because of the look of awe in her eyes. "Well you see this is my favorite place in the whole world. When I was little I found this place and instantly fell in love with it, the butterflies, and the flowers. Whenever I would feel down and Shikamaru wasn't around or able to hang out I would come here. For some reason just coming here and laying down and watching the butterflies dance in the air made me feel at peace." He then put a small kiss on her forehead. "Also it reminded me of you, the flowers are your favorite color and flower, as well as the color you always wear. Plus the butterflies here are the same color as your eyes. When I would come here it would almost be like I was with you, and it made me happy."

Ino was in tears, what he had just told her was perhaps the most beautiful and romantic thing she had ever heard. "Chouji-kun, I don't know what to say…I love you!" She then wrapped her arms around him tightly and held him tight. They then sat down in the field wrapped around each other, she then felt Chouji slip something around her neck. "Chouji what's this?"

"It's just something I wanted to give you." He said with a smile. She then looked down to see a silver necklace with a water droplet shaped symbol on the end of it. She then looked closely at it and saw the half of it was the color of Chouji's jacket and the other was the color purple that Ino always wore; the two colors spiraled together in the middle coming to an ever so tiny heart of silver. He then leaned in very close and whispered in her ear. "Happy 6 month anniversary!"

"C-Chouji-kun, why did you get me this? I hadn't gotten you anything, I'm sorry."

He simply laughed, confusing Ino. In truth he hadn't expected her to get him anything; he had just wanted to do this for Ino. "Don't worry about it; you have already brought me the best thing I could ever ask for…you brought me happiness." She said as he kissed her again. She melted in his arms, she could stay there forever.

'This is perfect; Chouji-kun is the best person I could have ever chosen. I don't now what I would do without him.' She then looked up and into his loving eyes. 'Oh Chouji-kun, I want to spend the rest of my life with you.' She thought not knowing of the shadow user and the son of the Hokage were sitting in a nearby tree smiling at the two lovebirds.

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(1 Week until the Finals)

Neji Hyuuga had been training day in and day out ever since his meeting with Hiashi fully determined to show his uncle that he was wrong about the idiot in orange. Since Lee had recently started some very…very odd and disturbing training with his sensei Neji was more or less forced to seek training with TenTen.

Everyday they got up at 5am, trained hard until noon and had a small lunch. Then continued until 7pm when they left for dinner at their respective houses. But on this day TenTen decided that she was actually have a meaningful talk with her cold team mate.

She opened her mouth to speak but the object of her affection spoke up first to her surprise. "TenTen-san, have you ever heard anyone call Naruto-san the 'Hero of the Village'?" He asked with agitation written all over his face.

"Well now that I think about it, I've heard my dad say that a couple times actually." Now she was totally lost in thought herself. "Why do you ask?"

As quickly as Neji had brought up the subject he dropped it. "No reason now let us get back to training." He said with his ever emotionless face cracked by a subtle frown. TenTen shook her head as she followed the Hyuuga back to their little training area that was covered in weapons.

About an hour later they took a break for water, TenTen wanted to actually talk with the boy so she decided to be bold for a moment. "Hey Neji, is there anyone you like? You know like a girl?" What she got totally wasn't what she expected.

Neji almost choked on the water he was drinking and spewed it out in a very non-Neji way. Then he somehow picked up one of his cousin's traits, he blushed up like a strawberry. After a minute or so of composing himself he spoke up. "I have not the time right now to pursue any sort of relationship; I must train to defeat Uzumaki-san." He said while glancing at her ever so slightly.

TenTen was crushed; it wasn't like she had asked him out or anything. But for him to say that he wasn't even looking had made her feel pretty bad, but she didn't want to look weak in front of Neji so she decided to take a more Naruto approach to the situation. "Wait, you thought I was talking about me?" She then burst into a forced laugh. "Neji, I was just curious. Not insinuating something."

But then she saw something that she hadn't expected. She had expected him to simply nod in agreement and brush her off as always. But to her surprise his head sank ever so slightly and a glazed over look came to his eyes, one of being hurt. 'Did I hurt his feelings? Does he actually have interest in me; he did say he didn't have time NOW! So it's possible!'

Neji then stood up with the same glazed look in his eyes and motioned for them to continue training. During the hail of weaponry Neji was deep in thought. 'What happened, I thought she was so into me? She is the only person I actually enjoy spending time around. What happened, has she gotten interested in Lee all of a sudden? No, it couldn't be everyone is terrified to see Lee because Gai is close behind and seeing him recently is just disturbing. So what is it, I might actually have to do something to ensure that she will stay with me before I am able to have the necessary time to do so after I crush that damn Uzumaki.'

He was suddenly torn from his thoughts as a kunai managed to strike him across the shoulder, he then fell down griping it in pain. "Oh Neji! I'm so sorry; I didn't mean to hit you. You were supposed to block it!" She yelled as she ran over to his side with worry written all over her face.

"No it's fine TenTen-san, I was just thinking about something and lost my focus." Said praying to Kami-sama that she wouldn't ask what he was thinking about. When she just nodded with a smile he was relived.

"Well I don't think training with that injury would be a wise choice Neji-kun." He nodded to the fact and got up slowly. "Maybe we should drop by the hospital and get you fixed up."

"Yes that does sound lice the right thing to do." He then decided that in order to preserve his future with the only person he could stand for long amounts of time, he would have to do something very un-Neji like. "Anou, after that would you care to join me for dinner?"

TenTen's eyes went wide, had Neji just asked out for diner? The Neji Hyuuga? But hell she wouldn't mss this opportunity. "O-Of course Neji-kun that would be quite nice."

Neji then let a rare smile cross his face. "Ok then let us go TenTen-chan."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Two smoking holes were very visible in the side of an out cropping or rock on top of one of the cliffs near Konoha. "So it would seem that your limit is two shots." Stated a silver haired Jonin.

"What would happen if I tried for a third?" Asked the brooding Uchiha that had been training with the Copy Ninja for the past three weeks.

A serious look came over the normally calm ninja's face. "Nothing…best case scenario you would loose all of your chakra. At worst…death." Kakashi allowed the seriousness to set into his new student's thick head. He then looked off to the side and sighed. "You might as well come out; your killing intent gives you away easily."

A short red headed boy with a large gourd stepped out from behind a big rock. "What are you doing here?" Sasuke asked getting defensive, something about Gaara just gave him the creeps.

"We are the same, you and I. I can see it in your eyes; you know what true pain is and have lived through it; making yourself stronger. It is because we are that same I can prove my existence. Never forget this Sasuke Uchiha, you are my prey and I will confirm my existence when I bathe in your blood." With that the creepy boy from Suna disappeared in a flash of sand.

"Well that was…odd." Said Kakashi.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It had been just after sunset when what felt like an earthquake shook Konoha. Also a new large toad footprint had appeared outside of the hospital when the medic-nin had found Naruto unconscious. They quickly took him inside and treated him for chakra depletion, word spread quickly around the village about the strange way that the 'Kyuubi child' had been found outside of the hospital.

Arashi and Hinata had returned to Konoha with Jiraiya the following morning, eager to see their blonde team mate after hearing about his successful summoning of Gamabunta. When they got there they quickly made their way to his room to find that he had been strapped down forcibly by the doctors. With all of the times that Naruto had to have visited the place during his childhood due to the less than nice things the villagers did to him and Arashi, the doctors had retrained him because he always tended to run away before he was fully healed. So they intended to heal him completely for the finals, any doctors in the hospital who had viewed Naruto negatively had changed their opinion after seeing just how much he put up with from the villagers and how he still had such a good attitude.

"Arashi! Hinata-chan! You guys came, I'm all better but these baka doctors won't let me get out, not even for some ramen!" His two best friends just laughed at him and undid his restraints. "So what all did you guys do while I was in here?"

Both of them blushed when they thought about how they had woken up that morning, with Arashi's head still in Hinata's lap and Hinata's hand in his hair. "W-Well when we woke up Jiraiya-sensei told us about what happened with you and how you struggled against the Toad Boss. Then we made our way b-back here to rest up for the last couple days before the tournament."

"Well that sounds fine, I should get out of here in a little bit or hell I might just run. But anyway do you guys want to meet up tomorrow for lunch at Ichiraku's?" The blonde asked his team mates.

"That sounds perfect; we haven't had ramen in quite a while. Right Hina-chan?"

She blushed slightly at the mention of going out to eat with them, but they had done it several times before so why was she blushing. Maybe it was because she felt closer to Arashi than before and she secretly wished that it would just be them. "H-Hai that does sound g-good. I wonder h-how Ayame-chan is doing?"

"Yeah that does sound good, but I have to get going you guys I have something that I need to do first." Arashi then turned and left the room leaving only Hinata and Naruto in there, but the look in his eye was easily seen by both in the room. Arashi looked very worried for some reason; it wasn't like Arashi to get worried easily. He had always been the calm one who could pick apart a situation, but something has him worried.

"Don't worry Hinata-chan; he probably has a lot on his mind with the finals and other things coming up." Hinata didn't really know what these other things were but she understood that something was bothering the Himura. "I bet I know exactly where he'll be come night time."

Hinata knew exactly where also, it was Naruto and Arashi's favorite place to think…the Hokage Monument.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The sun had just set when Hinata stopped in a tree that overlooked the top of the Monument, just like Naruto had said Arashi was there. But he wasn't alone, Ragna was there sitting by his side panting and Arashi seemed to look like the two had been training with something. Arashi then whispered something to the silver wolf and then he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

It was at that moment that the stars came out, Arashi let out a long sigh as he leaned back and gazed at the stars. Hinata then silently dropped to the ground while having an internal battle with herself. She desperately wanted to go over and ask what was bothering Arashi and try to help him out the best way she could, but another part of her was afraid he would say that it wasn't her problem and he had to deal with it on his own. Building as much courage as she could she walked out of the overcast of the trees and into the opening. "A-Arashi-kun?"

He was startled to hear someone behind him, but when he realized it was Hinata he was more at ease. If it had been anyone else he probably would have given a much different reaction. "Oh, H-Hina-chan. Here come sit down, you should see the view." She nodded and quietly sat next to him and looked at the stars with him, it was a very calming thing too. After some time Arashi let out another sigh. "Coming here at night has always helped me sort out my thoughts and calm myself. But for some reason it's not working this time."

Hinata felt as if she absolutely had do something to help him out, and perhaps maybe find the courage to tell him how she felt. So she did all she could right then and put her hand on his shoulder with a caring warmth radiating from her eyes. "W-What's b-bothering you Arashi-kun, y-you know you c-can t-talk to me a-about anything." She said really quietly hoping that he would want to confide in her. Lucky for her she was probably one of four people he could confide in, including Sandaime, Kakashi, and Naruto.

"It's these finals, there is something about them that just doesn't feel right. I keep getting these weird feelings like something bad is going to happen and there's nothing I can do to stop it or protect those I care about." A silent tear fell from the eye opposite to where Hinata was sitting. "There is just something in the air that is making me uneasy. Plus that other thing isn't exactly helping either." He said with a laugh.

"Anou…w-what other thing Arashi-kun?" She asked with a face that just made Arashi want to break down and tell her, but he had to concentrate on the finals.

He then turned and grabbed her hands while looking her straight in the eyes. Hinata was startled at first but was now enjoying the contact as she invented new shades of red. "Hina-chan, it's something very important. But I have to focus on the finals and whatever is making me feel uneasy. Please understand that I want nothing more than to tell you but I can't because it will just distract me when I should be focused on becoming a Chunin."

Hinata now wanted to know what it was that had Arashi so deep in thought about, she had a few dreams about what it might be but she didn't put too much hope on them. "I-I understand Arashi-kun, b-but if you d-don't mind c-can I stay here and w-watch the stars with you?" She was so red she was giving off heat.

Arashi smiled and said. "I would like that very much Hina-chan, did you know that this is my favorite thing to do when I'm not training?" She shook her head no in surprise, she had though she knew most things about Arashi from watching him for so many years and being on his team. But now that he mentioned it she remembered how content he looked whenever he would just stare up at the sky at night. "Let's just enjoy this Hina-chan."

They then laid back and just watched the stars, after a little while they both saw a shooting star go streaking across the sky. "Q-Quick Arashi-kun, you're supposed t-to make a w-wish on a shooting star!" He nodded and they both closed their eyes and made a wish. 'I wish Arashi-kun and I will get together and be together forever.'

Before he closed his eyes he took a look at Hinata as she smiled wide at her wish. 'I wish that after I tell her how I feel that we can be together forever.' He then smiled wide like Hinata had, then all of the worry and uneasiness that had plagued Arashi the entire day vanished. Maybe it was Hinata, but he had never felt more calm and relaxed than he did at that very moment. 'I truly wish you will love me back.'

They both sat there silently for about an hour before they decided to head back to their houses. When Arashi left he left with a smile and a confidence that he seemed to have lost during the day. He couldn't wait for the finals to start so he could show everyone just how good he's become. Also he couldn't wait to see Naruto beat the snot out of Hinata's pompous cousin Neji.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next day was uneventful for everyone who was participating in the finals, they all rested and planned what they were going to do, some more than others. The Suna Genin were all anxious for what was going to happen the next day, especially Gaara. He would get to feel alive with Uchiha blood and then the blood of many others from Konoha if their plan worked correctly and how they planned it.

Gaara wasn't much for the plan, but if it allowed him to kill to his heart's content then who was he to complain. Now that he had been allowed to kill all he wished, he wouldn't stop until he could fill a lake with the blood of his enemies. Kankuro and Temari didn't particularly like the plan to begin with, but allowing Gaara to kill at will was a bad idea. He might lose control and 'It' might come out.

The two shuddered at the memories of what had happened the last time 'It' had emerged, it still plagued their nightmares. But they would make their Father proud with this mission. They watched as the many quests began filling the streets and making their way to the festival that was held before the tournament.

As usual Gaara was sitting in the corner of their room quietly keeping to himself with thoughts of the blood bath to come while his siblings talked with each other about the next day. Kankuro glanced over to see the look on Gaara's face and then turned back to his older sister. "I have a real bad feeling about this Temari…" She shared his feelings and nodded in agreement.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Yeah this chapter is kinda short but I think I'll make up for it with the next chapter.**

**I also hope everyone liked how I tried to work in most of the relationships in and started on the Neji and TenTen, and the possibilities of Lee and Sakura. **

**Anyway give me reviews they're like Kage Bunshins, you can't have too many!**

**So review or I'll get Gai to hit you with a Morning Peacock!!!**


	13. The Battle of Destiny!

**Review Reply:**

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto!

Xxxxxxxxxxx

The day had not started out well for Arashi; first he stubbed his toe on the side of his bed. Then he ran out of hot water half way through his shower, his favorite cup chipped as he was enjoying his morning tea, and the strap for his shuriken holster broke so he had to use his spare. Everything so far had screamed that the day was going to be a very bad one, but he forced those thoughts out of his mind as he made his way to the stadium early like he liked to be. His talk with Hinata the night before really cheered him up, but whatever that had Arashi on edge apparently also had Yondaime on edge as well. He had appeared in his pleasant dream about Hinata and simply told him to stay on his toes the next day in a very serious tone, but then ruined the moment as he turned Hinata into TenTen and created a furious Neji who chased Arashi around all night. Truly a bad dream.

As Arashi approached the stadium he was greeter by Ino, Chouji, and Hinata. "Ohayo Arashi-kun!!" Ino yelled out as she saw the boy with the golden streaks in his hair.

Arashi snapped out of his thoughts of the day and instantly warmed up and felt better as his eyes met Hinata's. "Ohayo Ino-chan, Chouji, Hina-chan!" He ran up to them with a smile. "I see you guys are here early, I thought I was going to be the first one here. At least of the competitors."

"Actually Shino has been here for about 10 minutes. But you better watch out for yourself Arashi-kun." The blonde girl latched onto Chouji's muscular arm said.

"Don't worry about me, that Oto ninja has nothing special. I have a jutsu that makes his sound crap useless." He said with a sneaky grin.

"Well that's good; we figured he wouldn't be much for you after what you did to Kabuto. But I was actually talking about a rumor I heard." Arashi tilted his head like a curious wolf. "Well apparently about half of the Sasuke fan club left it because they finally realized what a cold teme his is. But apparently after hearing what you did in the preliminaries and about your hair change, they started an Arashi fan club."

Hinata didn't like this one bit; sure Arashi had always been near the top of the list for the hunks of Konoha. But he had never had fan girls chasing him around like Sasuke because they all went after him. Now that there were girls after her Arashi-kun that meant that there was competition for his affection, she didn't like the idea of random girls fawning over him. He had felt like she was going to kill TenTen when she heard that she had an eye of him. She now didn't know how she would react if she saw some random girl trying to cling to him. 'Maybe I could get Earendur to claw their eyes out? No that's just a tad too extreme; I guess I'll just have to find the courage to tell him after the finals.'

Arashi was horrified at this news, he had seen how the girls flew at Sasuke during the academy and absolutely didn't want any girl besides Hinata being that close with him. "I-I guess I'll have to be careful indeed Ino-chan, thanks for the info. Well I guess I'll get inside to the competitor's area, you guys should go get some good seats! Wish me luck!!" He said as he jogged his way to the entrance.

"Good luck A-Arashi-kun." Hinata squeaked out as her love ran off. She then felt a hand on her shoulder to find Ino smiling at her.

"Don't worry Hinata, he'll see soon. Those fan girls don't stand a chance against you, he's all yours." Hinata blushed brightly at the knowledge that her love of Arashi was so easily seen by everyone besides Arashi. She nodded and followed the couple into the stands to find some great seats on the first row over looking the battle field below them.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hey Shino how are you doing?" Arashi said to the bug boy, trying to at least get something out of him. Shino gave Arashi a quick nod, and then went back to his thoughts. But Arashi wanted an actual conversation with him. "Shino, why is it that you don't talk much? When you do it's always something of relevance or something, why don't you just…talk?"

Shino just stared at Arashi for a minute or so then he spoke up to Arashi's surprise. "It is my clan's way, plus even if I wanted to speak with someone. They would not want to speak with me, they all find me weird."

Arashi had not thought that Shino actually was self conscious enough to care that others felt his bugs were a weird thing. "Well if I didn't want to talk with you then why would I be asking?" Shino was perplexed; none of his team mates had taken any time to get to know him other than how he fought. But here was some one from a different team and at the moment a potential opponent wondering about him. "I like to know about my friends." Arashi said with a wolf like grin.

'Friends…' Shino had acquaintances sure, people who knew who he was but no one had ever celled themselves his friend. "Well then what would you like to know, Arashi-sa…kun?" A tiny smile cracked Shino's emotionless exterior for a second.

"Now I'm getting some progress! Well I guess…anou…oh! Is there anyone you like, you know like girls?" Arashi asked simply because Hinata was still on his mind.

"Well no, not really. I do enjoy spending time with my fiancé, but that is to be expected."

"F-FIANCE!?!?!" He asked in utter shock, 'You're 13 for Kami's sake!!!'

"Yeas, it is an arranged marriage with a girl from my clan. Be have been betrothed since birth, it can not be helped." Shino said calmly.

"Well I guess it's good you 'enjoy spending time' with her. I don't know what I'd do if I was in one of those!"

"Yes, but if you will excuse me I must prepare for the battles to come." Then a smile once again crossed his face. "But I did enjoy this, and we should do it again sometime Arashi-kun."

"Yeah you're right I probably need to prepare myself, the people are mostly here anyway. I wonder where Naruto is though?"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chouji, Ino, and Hinata had gotten inside the stadium and much to their surprise there were lots of people already there. They made their way down to the front of the area they were in and found some seats. When they looked around they saw some people they knew, sitting in the back was Kiba and his sister, Hana. They could already see the Hokage and Kazekage in their own personal box. But next to them were Sakura and Lee, who seemed to be having a nice conversation.

Surprised that they didn't hear any shouts concerning youth they sat down and waved to the two other genin. 'I hope she can give up on Sasuke sometime too, he's not a good person to want to be with. Maybe if I don't pester Sakura about it she might see that Lee is actually a good person.' "Ohayo Sakura-san, Lee-san!" She said with a smile and a kiss on the cheek from Chouji, who understood what she was trying to do for her friend.

"Oh, hey Ino. What luck you guys got a place to sit next to us. I can't wait to see how everyone does. I bet Shino-kun and Sasuke-kun do very well." Sakura said as a slight frown came over Lee's face.

"Y-Yes, they are both v-very strong. I-I just h-hope that Naruto-kun w-will be alright, Neji-niisan is a t-tough opponent." They all remembered what Neji had done to her and were all grateful to Arashi for helping her so much. "B-But I'm not worried about Arashi-kun, I know h-he'll do great." She said with a smile that could melt anyone's heart.

"Yeah, but I wouldn't take that Dosu guy lightly. He finished Chouji-kun off in like 10 seconds." Chouji then looked down from embarrassment of the fact he had lost so quickly. "Oh, I'm sorry Chouji-kun. I didn't mean it like that, you know that."

She then kissed him lovingly. "I know Ino-chan." He said feeling happy again.

'I wish I could have that…' Sakura thought. **'Then we just need to try harder with Sasuke-kun. CHA!!' **He inner self screamed. "Oh yeah I almost forgot to ask, Hinata I heard that your team went off to train with the legendary Sannin Jiraiya-sama!"

"Y-Yes, we were trained b-by Ero…I mean Jiraiya-sama. We all p-progressed much, t-that is w-why I said that Arashi-kun w-would do g-great." She said with a smile, knowing that their summoning might come in handy. She had been wondering what Arashi and Ragna had been doing the night before when she got there, maybe a new jutsu.

"Well what about Naruto?" Ino asked, now curious as to why their team got such a prestigious sensei.

"W-Well his a-ability t-to perform fully s-sort of…fluctuates a b-bit depending on the s-situation." The other wondered what this meant. "B-But he has g-gotten much stronger s-since he fought K-Kiba-san." She said defending her team mate.

The others now were very interested in the first fight; Naruto had been very powerful when he fought Kiba. Also that final jutsu he almost did, if he was even stronger…it could get messy.

It had been a little while and they had basically had some small talk and a little teasing Hinata of course about her feelings for Arashi. But whenever they did joke about it they heard a low growl, but when they turned around to see what it was coming from they didn't hear anything. But Ino had an idea, 'Kiba…' By then the stands were quite full, they could see a section reserved for the Hyuuga with Hiashi and Hinabi sitting calmly in it, the older Ino-Shika-Chou team was sitting higher up laughing about the old days, and Gai had thrown the person sitting on the other side of Lee out of the stadium shouting something about a youthfully saved seat.

It was then that the doors below them opened and all of the competitors entered, excluding Naruto and Sasuke. All of the genin were wondering where they could be, suddenly everyone heard a very loud "Moooo!" Followed by a scream of pain, then Naruto shot through the gates and came skidding to a stop next to Arashi's feet. Arashi simple shook his head in disappointment and Naruto started to curse Konohamaru.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A man with brown hair and a bandana with the Konoha symbol on it, a Chunin jacket, and a senbon in his mouth like a toothpick was standing in front of the 9 genin in front of him. "Hey, look up at the crowd kids. They're here to see you."

Arashi and Naruto then looked up into the stands to hear it erupt in applause. Arashi scanned the stands and found Hinata sitting with the rest of his friends plus Sakura. He waved to her and saw a bright blush stain her face. Then his eyes went over the other areas and saw the Hyuuga section, most of them were their usual calm selves but two stuck out to him. A little girl that was sitting next to Hiashi looked quite mad and kept making looks at Hinata almost to say she didn't approve of her even being there. Then Arashi saw Hiashi and that was what surprised him, he actually didn't look like his usual cold self. He looked more a peace and dare he think happier.

"**Well it looks like Hiashi-kun has finally realized that he has more important things than 'the clan'. I'm glad; after she died I thought I would never see a happy Hiashi again."**

'Yondaime, what are you talking about? How do you know Hiashi-sama?'

Arashi could hear a laugh come from inside him. **"I guess we really need to get you more informed about me! Hiashi-kun was also on my genin team along with your mother, he was always a calm Hyuuga but he had times that he would loosen up. Especially after he met his wife, but she died during his second daughter's birth. Ever since then he became the Hiashi you know, he's looking more like he did back then."**

'Well whatever, all I know is that he made Hina-chan suffer during her childhood and that he pushed her way too hard and made her feel bad. I won't forgive him for that, even if he is your friend.' Arashi thought to his internal mentor as Sandaime cleared his throat with a voice enhancing jutsu.

Sandaime's voice boomed loudly so that everyone could hear him. "Welcome everyone to the finals of this year's Chunin Selection Exams! I would like to thank you all for coming; I hope you all will enjoy the fights. Now lets us begin, Genma you may announce the first match."

The Chunin with the senbon nodded as he turned to the crowd. "The first match is between Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuuga, will all other contestants move up to the waiting box." Everyone else moved up to the stairs that led to the waiting area.

As he was walking to the stairs Arashi was glaring hard at Neji. As he passed Naruto he whispered to him. "Wipe the floor with him for Hina-chan." Naruto nodded and continued Arashi glare as he left.

When everyone was gone Naruto turned to Neji and with a glare lifted up his fists like he had when he vowed to kick Neji's ass. "I VOW TO WIN!!"

Neji just closed his eyes, when he opened then they were flaring with an active Byakugan. With both of his team mates able to use that Byakugan, Naruto was well versed in fighting against it. Even though Arashi didn't like using Juuken he was still formidable in it, not as good as Hinata but still above average usage. Naruto knew what to expect from Neji and had trained himself hard to be able to fight against not one but two Juuken users. He knew how to counter the Hakke Rokujūyon Shō with a jutsu if he can see it coming, and he figured that his Kage Bunshin could work against him.

Neji was just as confident as ever. He saw the look of determination in Naruto's eyes and he scoffed at it. "Good, you're quite determined. All the better for me, I can't wait to see the look of despair on your face when you realize that your vow is completely unattainable!"

Then a strong burst of chakra burst from Naruto and started to move the wind inside the arena, surrounding the two in a dusty ring. "Are we going to stand here talking all day…or are we going to fight!? Let's get going, show me what you got!!"

Genma then spoke up seeing how badly the two wanted to fight. "Alright then, let the first match of the final round Begin!"

Neji calmly got into a familiar stance to Naruto, while Naruto was just standing there watching him with eyes of intensity. Everyone was waiting for the match to begin. Up in the stands several people were murmuring about different things. "Watch closely Hinabi, there is nobody in the Hyuuga clan who has inherited such a strong Kekkei Genkai as Neji. His is even stronger than your sister's."

The young Hyuuga looked up at her father questioningly. "Stronger than Nee-chan?"

"Yes, even stronger than your's I believe." Despite Neji's words against his daughter and best friend's son, Hiashi still thought that Neji was right on how powerful he was. He just hoped that Naruto might be able to show Neji that one forged their own fate, before he was defeated.

With a quick dash from Neji, he slammed his palm onto Naruto's heart. A horrified look appeared on Naruto's face along with several people in the audience. Neji was simply smirking, but to his surprise the Naruto he hit disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving a hole where he had stood before. Neji then realized it had been a Kage Bunshin and was wondering if it had been one the whole time. Suddenly something burst upwards from the ground in an orange flash. He then only had millisecond to dodge the fist coming straight for his jaw.

He got away just in time, but was still thrown into confusion as to how Naruto could have gotten so close before he had noticed him. When they both got back into fighting stances it was Naruto who was smirking. He was receiving loud cheers in the stands from Ino, Lee, Gai, and Chouji. Sakura even seemed to have a smile on her face.

Everyone else was shocked that he had been able to make a Kage Bunshin and had also been able to fool Neji's Byakugan and hold a conversation with him with it. Then to get in close enough to almost land a knock out blow, it was stunning. Perhaps there was more to this boy that met the eye.

"Well I guess it's time to get serious!" Naruto dashed at Neji with speeds that he thought only Lee could achieve. Arashi was smirking in the waiting area as he was watching his friend do his best. Naruto then went into a burst of taijutsu that to most only looked like his arms and legs had become blurs. To Naruto's surprise Neji blocked every single one of them. 'Okay, maybe there is something more to this guy.' He though as he managed to get a side kick to land on Neji's ribs, but at the same time he saw a juuken shot coming for his right shoulder.

From sparing enough with Hinata he knew what Neji was up to, and Naruto knew he didn't want his tenketsu closed. Especially there, it could make his entire arm useless. At the very last second Naruto managed to move enough that Neji didn't hit his target. Both of them fell back to evaluate their situations. Naruto rubbed his shoulder to get it back to normal; while Neji rubbed his ribs in what could quite possible be a broken rib.

Naruto knew what he had to do now; he had to keep at a relative distance in order to continue the fight. "Kage Bunshin Jutsu!" He said with his favorite hand sign, as 9 other Narutos appeared to everyone's shock. Especially Neji's, the problem was that even with his Byakugan he couldn't tell which one was the real one. "Let's see how you handle 10 of us!" They all said in unison as they drew their kunai.

Two of them moved quickly to each side of the Hyuuga and charged, easily Neji jumped with a spin in the air and landed a kick to each one's head and dispelled them both in a puff of smoke. Two more then tried to take him from behind, only to be shoved in front of him and slammed with a juuken hit to the guy. Then the rest of the Bunshin dashed at him and were quickly destroyed with a few hash hits from the Hyuuga prodigy.

"You thought you could be Hokage? These eyes on mine can show me many things, and one of the things it has shown me is that everyone has limitations. Limitations that can not be changed, you are a failure and will always be a failure! You can not change who you are by simply trying hard, you are born with what you can do. Only a fool wastes his time trying to be something he can never be!"

Naruto was visibly outraged at Neji's words. "A fool huh? Who are you to judge who a person can and can't be?"

"So you think anyone can be Hokage with a little hard work?" Neji replied with obvious sarcasm. "Open your eyes fool, out of all the Shinobi in the entire world only a select few ever become Hokage. This is because they were born to be Hokage; it was their destiny and fate to become Hokage. There is only one destiny that everyone shares…and that is death."

Hinata was also shaken by Neji's words but refused to accept them. 'There's hatred in his eyes, hatred for the Main Branch of the family.' Thought the head of the clan.

Naruto now wanted to destroy Neji now not for only what he did to Hinata, but now for spitting in the face of his and Arashi's dreams. "Oh yeah, so what! You can think that way if you want…people have always told me I don't know when to give up." He then smiled widely at Neji. "Kage Bunshin Jutsu!!!" He yelled as about 50 Narutos appeared next to him. "Who's the fool now??"

They all dashed at him and engaged him in some more vicious taijutsu, which was unfortunately dodged with ease by Neji. After evading them for a while he then made a dash for one Naruto who was standing near the edge of the ring around him smiling. "You think you can fool me with this trick? You can't fool me!" He yelled as he plunged his palm into the Naruto's chest. Neji figured the match was over and relaxed a bit when Naruto slumped onto the ground. Suddenly the Naruto he just hit burst into smoke. "What the!?!"

The 49 Narutos surrounding Neji took to the air with a smile as all planning to dive bomb him and overwhelm him with multiple opponents. Just as they were about to slam into him Neji let out a small laugh as he began to spin. Suddenly chakra enveloped him and was shot out at an amazing force. "Kaiten!!" He said as he Bunshin collided with the spiral of chakra, destroying them and knocking the real Naruto off to the side and into the dirt.

Hiashi was shocked, Kaiten was supposed to be a move that only those in the Main Branch could perform. 'He truly will become the greatest of the Hyuuga. Too bad for Naruto, this match is over.'

Naruto was lying over on the ground after being thrown off of Neji by the Kaiten. Angrily Naruto got up and refused to give up; he quickly made several Bunshins and surrounded Neji. They all charged at once, but as they got close enough he stated another Kaiten; sending Naruto and the Bunshins back to the ground dispelling all the clones and leaving Naruto alone and getting up slowly and dizzily.

"It's over, you're within my range." Neji said as he got into a stance that Naruto was all too familiar with.

'Crap, I don't have enough time to counter it!!!' He yelled internally.

Somewhere in the stands sat a small girl with red hair with most of it hanging freely and a little bit tied up in a small ponytail. She was greatly worried for Naruto; she had gotten to know the blonde over the years when her family would come to visit Konoha either for the Chunin exams, family business, or just a place to relax at. He and her had begun a sort of secret relationship the year before when Naruto was still in the Academy, she hadn't seen him since then and when she heard that he was going to be in the finals her heart nearly leapt out of her chest. But now she was very worried, it didn't look like Naruto was doing very well. If he lost then all her plans for after the tournament would be wasted. She finally had enough and had to make her presence known to her blonde love. "Naruto-kun, you can do it!!!" She yelled as loud as she could.

Naruto looked up for a split second to see the object of his affections nearly in tears at what was happening below her. 'No! I won't lose here!! I refuse to let her see me lose like this!!'

But there was still the very real problem of the move Neji was milliseconds away from unleashing. "Hakke Rokujūyon Shō!!!" Neji was in front of Naruto in under a blink of an eye. He then proceeded to pummel Naruto with Juuken hits. "2 strikes…4 strikes…8 strikes…16 Strikes…32 Strikes…64 STRIKES!!!!" Neji yelled as Naruto was shot back with his last attack. "End it Proctor, he's finished."

'What's going on, it's impossible for him to know that move! What's happened, have we been surpassed by this member of the Branch Family!?!' Hiashi thought as he witnessed the mastery of the juuken that only a few of the Main Branch possessed.

Naruto was lying on the ground with most of his tenketsu closed from Neji's attack. But he once again refused to give up, with her watching he would Never give up, EVER! Naruto then began to think of those he was fighting for; for Hinata because of what Neji had done her. For Arashi because of the same reason, for Lee because he would show Neji how much hard work can count for, for himself to show that he is worth people's respect and acknowledgement. But most importantly it was for the one he loved but hadn't told yet; he refused to let her see him fail. It had been one of the promises he made to himself when he met her. With all his strength he forced himself slowly back to his feet. A gasp was heard all around the stadium as they saw the blonde boy rise to his feet.

"I-Impossible!! How are you standing!?!" Neji asked in shock.

"I told you, I just don't know when to give up!"

"Stop this madness, you can't hope to win. I have nothing against you personally so give up."

"Well I DO have something against you!! The way you treated Hinata-chan, the way you tore down her self confidence, you mocked her called her a failure, all that nonsense about 'the Great Hyuuga Clan'. Main House, Branch House…who cares!!! It doesn't give you the right to say who is a failure, that's what I've got against you!"

Neji was now fuming at being ridiculed like he had been. "Well you seem to want to know about it, let me tell you about the Hyuuga's heritage of hatred! For generations the Main House of the clan has practiced a secret ninjutsu called the Caged Bird Seal." In the stands Hinabi looked up at her father questioningly only to see him looking down in shame. "The seal binds us to our fate so that we can not escape." Neji then reached up and undid his forehead protector, revealing a green seal on his forehead.

"T-That's…the seal?" Naruto asked shakily, in front of him stood another person whose life had been ruined because of the seal on them that they couldn't escape.

"It happened when I was 4, when the leaders of my clan branded me with this seal. It was also Hinata-sama's 3rd birthday. Being her team mate I'm sure that you know the importance of that day." Naruto's head dropped, knowing of the terror that that day spurs for Hinata even now.

Arashi knew as well, how Hinata had been kidnapped by a Cloud Ninja in hopes to learn the secret of the Byakugan. But unlike Naruto, he knew of the repercussions of Hinata's rescue. The death of Neji's father Hizashi, and the reasons behind the seal. Arashi hated the way the Hyuuga were run and was just thankful that the worse things that went on in the family. But he now felt bad for Neji, how no matter what he did he could never escape the seal and rise to where he could do some good.

"I don't get it, why use a seal? Why does it all matter?" Naruto asked, wondering why Hinata had left these things out.

"It's to keep us in our place! We live with the fear that they will use it to turn our brains to jelly anytime they wish. Fear, that is what we live with; and we live with it everyday. Only in death are we free of it. This is how the power of the Byakugan is kept sealed away. It is the Branch Families destiny to protect the secrets of the Byakugan and serve the Main Family obediently for all eternity." Then Neji's head dropped a little. "At least it was…until that fateful day. The Main House went too far…when they murdered my father!!"

Neji then went into a lengthy story about what had happened the night Hinata was so fearful of. How they murdered Hizashi in order to save Hiashi from the Cloud village's demands.

"They were so much alike, twin brothers. But their destinies were determined just because one was born a few seconds after the other. It is the same with this match, your destiny was decided the second it was made that I would be your opponent. It's your destiny to lose to me, and that's it." Neji said as he tied his forehead protector back on his head securely.

"Oh yeah? We won't know for sure until you beat me huh?"

"Until? Look at yourself, you can't use your chakra and you have taken quite a beating. You have no hopes of winning."

"I get it, your father was killed a long time ago and it wasn't fair. But destiny has nothing to do with it!" Naruto yelled trying to convince Neji he was wrong.

Neji then got visibly angry. "You don't understand." He yelled as he rushed at Naruto and slammed him with a juuken to the stomach like he had done to Hinata, sending Naruto flying back to the ground in pain.

"Proctor, he is done this time. Call the match if you don't want a corpse to deal with." Neji said very coldly. He then turned to leave and said. "You're a failure."

"W-Wait, don't walk away from me!" Naruto said as he once again stumbled to his feet. "I'm not done yet, I…I won't quit, and I don't go back on my word! That's my nindo, my ninja way just like Arashi and Hinata-chan!"

"You impudent little brat, you don't get it. We are all given a destiny at birth and it is hopeless to fight against it. You don't know what it's like to be branded with a mark that sets you apart!! A mark that can NEVER BE WIPED AWAY!!!"

Everyone in the stadium that knew the truth about Naruto, felt incredibly bad for him because Naruto did know. He knew even more than Neji did, and his curse was even worse than Neji's. Hiashi was staring at his feet in shame at his nephew's naive words. 'Naruto, I'm sorry.'

"Oh yeah…I know exactly what that's like." Naruto said remembering that pain of his past. "Big deal…who cares. You think you've got troubles? I've got news for you Neji; you're not the only special one here."

'What the hell is he talking about, the way he's talking makes it seem like he…YONDAIME!!!!' Arashi had just figured out why everyone hated Naruto and in retrospect him. How could he have been so blind, they shared the same birthday and he knew what happened on his birthday. It was what made him have Yondaime inside him, he had never thought about who Yondaime had sealed Kyuubi into. All this time he had been friends with him, not knowing, not being able to help. It made Arashi feel horrible, like he was the worst friend in the world. He wanted to jump down there that instant and help Naruto, but he couldn't. Arashi had a new respect for his best friend, and vowed that he wouldn't let his friend's suffering alone continue. He saw Naruto as the Hero he was for holding Kyuubi back everyday.

From this revelation and the anger at himself, Arashi had began leaking chakra and a massive amount. He hadn't realized it until Shikamaru told him to calm down. When he realized what has happened he pulled it all back and proceeded to watch the match below him. He knew that Yondaime wouldn't want to talk about the subject on his mind so he stopped his mental yells for him.

"Did you ever think that Hinata might be suffering as much as you are? It's not her fault her father was born before your's. But you resent her for it, you disrespect her. Even when she's trying so hard to improve herself. All she wanted was your respect, and you went and almost killed her!! What was that all about anyway, I thought it was your destiny to serve the Main Family, not to beat it to a bloody pulp! After all you say about hw you can't fight destiny…you don't really believe in it anyway do you!?"

Neji just smirked and ignored the blonde's little speech. "I have blocked all 64 of your chakra points, how are you planning to keep fighting if you can't use your chakra?"

"Oh yeah you think you know everything with those eyes of yours, you think you know everyone's weaknesses. Well I'm going to prove you wrong!" ' Kyuubi!!! I need your chakra, give it to me now!'

"**Like I have anything better to do with my time Kit. Here, just beat that kid to a pulp."**

Naruto felt his body pulsate from the addition of Kyuubi's chakra, now all he had to do was force open hi tenketsu. Slowly he moved his hands into the ram sign and concentrated. "What are you doing fool? I've sealed your tenketsu you can't use chakra!" The ground began to shake under them both and whips of chakra begat to streak around Naruto, pebbles were being lifter into the air from his effort. 'H-How id this possible? Where is that chakra coming from…what IS he??'

Naruto began to yell as the pressure of the chakra built up behind his tenketsu. With one final push they burst open releasing a tremendous amount of charka. A red aura surrounded Naruto and be began the chuckle. "Looks like we're just getting started!"

To Neji's eyes it looked like Naruto was on fire with chakra, he had never seen so much it was even visible to the naked eye! If Arashi hadn't figured it out before, he most definitely would have gotten it then. It was amazing, he was just sorry for the beating that Neji was going to get.

'Incredible!! It's enormous, what kind of chakra IS it!?!? Or is it even chakra at all!?!'

'Whoa, this is incredible! This is even more power than before! And I LIKE it!' In an instant Naruto disappeared from in front to Neji and appeared behind him and in the air. He then shot several shuriken at Neji. Lucky for him he saw them coming.

"Kaiten!" Neji spun around and knocked the shuriken into the air harmlessly; he then caught two of them and hurled them back at the Uzumaki. But as quickly as he had appeared there Naruto disappeared once more, actually moving faster than the Byakugan could track, faster than Lee.

Neji managed to dodge just in time to miss a bone shattering punch and jump back. They both pulled out a kunai and hurled them at each other, only for them to clash mid-flight.

"This is it! I'm going to finish this!! Kage Bunshin Jutsu!!" Two Narutos appeared enflamed in chakra as well; they rushed at Neji at either side.

Knowing what he had to do he began to spin in order to destroy the Bunshin. "Kaiten!!" He yelled as he began to rotate, but the Bunshin weren't dispelling. So he began to spin faster and faster.

Naruto smirked because his plan had worked. He the did a couple hand signs and yelled. "Futon: Grand Tornado Jutsu!!" Suddenly in the spot next to where Neji was performing his Kaiten to stop the advancing Bunshin, a huge tornado appeared and spun at incredible speeds in the opposite direction of the Kaiten. When the two speeds were equal Naruto made the tornado smash into the Kaiten, shattering it and leaving Neji wide open.

Neji was in complete surprise, the Kaiten was an ultimate defense. Nothing could stop it or get through…until now. He had just enough time to look over and see Naruto face to face with him as he planted his fist square into Neji's temple. Neji flew over and smashed into the wall of the arena.

Going over Genma inspected Neji only to find that he was knocked out cold. "Winner…Naruto Uzumaki!" The audience exploded in applause, everyone cheering Naruto on. Arashi felt pride overflowing him for being Naruto's friend and team mate.

Higher in the stands the red headed girl that had called out to Naruto earlier was crying tears of joy for Naruto. She had witnessed him show his true power, the strength that she believed had been in him all along. She was proud of him and for knowing him. She was smiling widely for her boyfriend's accomplishment. Then the person next to her leaned in close and asked her. "Sasame-chan, who is that boy?"

She then looked up at her guardian with the red headband and Zanbato. "He's my boyfriend Hanzaki-san!" She said with a smile, the rest of the Fuma clan present was surprised at her declaration and all smiled seeing her admiration for him in her face.

"That was amazing! You have such an amazing team Hinata-chan!!" Ino proclaimed. Hinata blushed at the compliment; she knew Naruto was strong, very strong. But she had no idea he was this strong. It was a complete mystery to her where he could get such power, but there was something odd about it and she was curious.

After making several victory laps Naruto made his way up the stairs as Neji was helped onto a stretcher once he regained consciousness. Genma looked down at Neji at said something that gave his hope to forge his own destiny. "A caged bird will eventually work hard and figure out how to unlock its cage in order to fly free."

Neji was then lead into the medical room to recover. No sooner had he been able to sit up did his uncle enter the room. "What do you want Hiashi-sama?"

Hiashi had a horrible look on his face, one of utter shame. He handed Neji a scroll and said one thing. "This scroll holds the truth of that day." He then turned, unable to look his nephew in the face. As Neji read the scroll that told of what his father actually did, and had actually volunteered to sacrifice his life not for the Hyuuga. But for his brother and as an equal, a way of choosing his own destiny; even if it meant death.

When Neji looked back at his uncle, he saw him on the floor in a groveling position. "I'm so sorry Neji, I would have gladly given my life for your father's but it forced it upon himself. Please forgive me, the only thing I think I can do to repay you is to take you under my wing and personally see to your training."

Neji was in shock, the head of his clan was bowing to him. A lowly Branch Family member, but he was also saying he would train him. Neji couldn't refuse, but he also couldn't forget. "I'm sorry Hiashi-sama, but I can't forgive you for the past. But…hopefully we can make a new future for us." He said with the slightest of smiles. 'Thank you Naruto Uzumaki, for opening my eyes. Even just a little bit.'

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**OMG! I so meant for this chapter to have all the matches!! I guess I went a little over board on this fight, I hope you like it and the little changes I made.**

**Anyway next time it should be the rest of the fights. Also I revealed Naruto's pairing so I hope you like it! I think it will turn out nicely!**

**So anyway, REVIEW!!! Or I'll hit you with a Hakke Rokujūyon Shō!!!**


	14. Of Shadows and Wolves

**Review reply:**

**Daemon452:** Yeah it might be in a couple, after the invasion is over and Gaara is defeated. But I'm glad you liked it, and I hope you continue reviewing my updates!

**Grapefruit.ninja:** Well I can get them out fast because I just sit down and write, if it's something I like and I'm in the mood to write I can like 20 pages or so in a day!

**Perverted-Hokage:** Oh I don't plan on stopping, just keep reviewing and I'll keep writing faster!!!

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto

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All across the stadium people were talking about Naruto's victory against the Hyuuga prodigy. Mainly by the Hyuugas themselves, the majority of the conversations were how on Kami's green earth had that boy defeated Neji. But a few of them were praising Hinata for being on the team of the boy who avenged her loss at his hands a month earlier. At hearing this Hiashi smiled when he returned from his emotional talk with Neji. He hoped that maybe he could actually attempt to mend the relationships between the two houses of the Hyuuga, but now he wanted to focus on the next match.

The buzz of this tournament was the upcoming match; the finest Shinobi Suna had to offer against the last Uchiha. Most of the people who came to the finals were there to watch this fight, there was only one problem…the Uchiha wasn't there.

"Hokage-sama, Sasuke Uchiha still has not arrived at the arena yet. What should we do?" Raido, Sandaime's bodyguard asked in concern.

Sarutobi sighed, knowing how everyone was wanting to see Sasuke's match. "Well, if you don't mind Kazekage-sama I would like to move Sasuke and Gaara's match to the end of the matches."

The younger man in the same garb as Sarutobi but with blue instead of red said. "Of course Hokage-sama, after all it would be a shame to not see our Gaara at his best."

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Raido appeared next to Genma and told him the Hokage's decision. Nodding Genma turned to the audience. "Since Sasuke Uchiha is still not present, so we will be postponing his battle and jump ahead to the next one. Will Kankuro and Shino Aburame please come down to the arena."

Kankuro was panicking, his fight wasn't necessary for their plan to work. Also it would give away some of what he could do! "I-I forfeit Proctor!" He yelled.

Shino sighed; he had wanted to show what he could do. Now that he had 'won' his match he had nothing to do. It was quite irritating. "Uh, okay. Then we'll move on still, Temari and Shikamaru Nara. Get down here." Genma said irritated as well, something was up Kankuro didn't look to be someone who would give up easily. Something fishy was going on.

Temari was very excited to fight, unlike her brother. With a gust of wind she jumped out of the waiting area and floated down gracefully on her fan, riding it like some sort of sled. When she got to the ground she turned to Genma and gave him a sly smile. It was returned with an odd look from the senbon chewing Chunin. "What? I'm here for my match!"

"Well you're sure an eager one." He replied, then turning his head he looked directly at the lazy Nara still in the waiting area. "Well we might as well get started, Shikamaru get down here."

Now Shikamaru had many thoughts racing through his super powered brain. The pressing matter was the pros and cons of giving up. 'This is so troublesome, I don't want to have to fight a girl again! I should just give up…but then again. It's not right for a man to lose against a woman, not to mention Ino!'

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"_Shikamaru Nara!! What are you planning on doing for your match? It is tomorrow!"_

_The shadow used simply ignored her and continued doing his favorite thing. The only reaction he seemed to give was a small shrug. All of a sudden a female fist connected with his gut, knocking the wind out of him. "Ino what was that for? You can be so troublesome; I don't see how Chouji can put up with you."_

_Being a genius and all you would think that he would refrain from saying these sorts of things. But then you would be thinking wrong, she continued to pummel him until her boyfriend managed to pull her off him for a little bit. "I swear to Kami-sama that if you give up tomorrow I'm so going to KILL you!!!"_

_Shikamaru then looked at Chouji who just gave him a look that said 'I think she's serious!' This caused him to shudder at the thoughts of what she would do to him. It was then that Asuma chimed in as well. "Shikamaru, this is too important for you to do as you normally do. I'm going to back Ino on this one, you give up and Ino will be the last of your worries!" His sensei said as he continues sharpening his trench knives, sending a shiver of impending death down Shikamaru's spine._

"_Fine! You guys win, I promise I won't give up. But I'm not promising I'm going to win. That crazy Suna chick destroyed TenTen! Now let me get back to my clouds." ' I just know this is going to be troublesome…'_

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Shikamaru sighed loudly and made his way down the stairs, opting to take the long route down. It also allowed him to come up with a strategy for this particular opponent. When he passed the door and came out into the arena he heard the very loud cheers of his father and his friends along with a very loud cheering section made up of the rest of his team along with Gai and Lee. "How troublesome." He said as he meandered over and leaned up against the wall under the waiting box.

Genma knew of the boy's lazy tendencies but this was ridiculous. Temari also was offended at his attitude and what looked like disrespect for his opponent. It was then that the majority of the crowd began throwing various things at Shikamaru and booing him. 'Look at this; they don't even care about my match! I'm just the warm up for the main event. All they care about is watching Sasuke…those jerks!' He sighed heavily.

Now Temari had enough of Shikamaru's dawdling. "So what are you going to give up?" Shikamaru only lazily looked down from his cloud gazing pose to look at her. There was some one she reminded him of but he just couldn't put his finger on it.

"Come on Shikamaru, you going to get going sometime this YEAR!?!?!" Arashi yelled, trying to prod the Nara a little bit.

Now Temari was pissed for the lack of a better word. "Well if you're not going to start this…I WILL!!" She then ran off towards Shikamaru fan drawn.

"I didn't start the match." Genma tried to say but she just ignored him. "Oh well, begin."

Shikamaru gazed at the girl running at him. "Oh yeah, I forgot…this girls a spunky on. I hate spunky." He said as he pulled out two kunai just as Temari leapt up high. Quickly she came down with her fan, using it more like a hammer than a fan.

When the dust cleared it revealed only Temari standing where Shikamaru had been. She looked up to see him standing on the kunai that he had pulled out. By sticking them into the wall he made a step he could get on to avoid her attack. "You know I really don't care if I become a Chunin, but I guess I shouldn't let myself be beaten by a female." Temari only glared at his sexist remarks. "So let's get going!"

Quickly Temari wiped out her fan and with a powerful swing blasted the spot Shikamaru was with a powerful shot of wind. But once again when the dust cleared he wasn't there. 'Ok, he's not there again. I know he uses shadows, so where did he run off to?' She scanned the arena and found a collection of trees with lots of shadows under them. She smirked when she figured it out.

Meanwhile in the trees Shikamaru was carefully watching his opponent. 'I know it isn't exactly classy to clobber a girl…but who ever said I was classy?' She then moved her fan into a defensive stance by covering most of her body with it. 'Now either she is really stupid and is going to come over here, or she's smart like I think and is going to avoid the shadows and attack from long range.'

"GO FOR IT SHIKAMARU!! USE YOUR SUPER AWESOME JUTSU ON HER AND TAKE HER DOWN!!" Ino screamed while doing various poses that disturbed everyone around her except Chouji.

"Uh Chouji-san, what happened to her?" Sakura quietly asked the muscle bound Akamichi.

Chouji just laughed. "You don't remember how she acted during the preliminaries when Shikamaru was up?" Everyone around remembered her outburst there as well and shuddered at the memory. "Well she does this because Shikamaru has no motivation so she thinks that by having enough enthusiasm for two then he'll get motivated somehow." Ino then caught what they were talking about. "But I find it incredibly thoughtful and cute." He said with a smile, making her 'awww' and cuddle close to him as they continued to watch the standoff below them. Chouji had a look of escaping death on his face and Hinata could understand.

But back down in the arena Shikamaru wasn't even paying attention. He was currently day dreaming what it would be like to actually be a cloud. 'Ah, it would be so nice to be a cloud no worries or work. Just my style, not like this it's just too troublesome. The only reason I became a Shinobi was so I could do whatever I wanted, I didn't know there was going to be so much…work.' Despite his thoughts he was actually coming up with a plan, he was looking over the battle field while he was still hearing Naruto and Arashi yelling to him to get started already. He then came up with his plan and stood up with a smile. 'Oh well a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do.'

Temari was getting more frustrated with every passing second, but it really got her when he stood up and started smiling. 'What's he thinking behind that smile? Is he mocking me!?!' "Wind Scythe Jutsu!!" She yelled as the wind blown by her fan shot at Shikamaru's position and proceeded to leave several deep gashes in the trees and cut a few branches.

She was confident she got him that time, but with all the dust in the air it made confirmation difficult. Suddenly she saw a shadow streak across the ground in front of her attempting to grab onto her. Jumping back at a fast speed she managed to escape the shadow as it slowed down and stopped going forward. It then retracted as Temari marked where it had gotten to, marking the distance that his shadow could go.

"Now I get it…almost got me! How clever you are, with that Shadow Possession Jutsu of yours you can manipulate any shadow your in. The wall's shadow for instance! But there's a limit isn't there, no matter how thin you stretch it, it will only reach so far. Isn't that right?"

Shikamaru was breathing heavily from the attack earlier. "You got me."

'Good, now that I know his limit I can stay out of it and hit him hard. If I stay out of his range…he can't touch me. 15 meters and 32 centimeters, I'll stay outside of that distance and destroy him!' She thought as she watched him carefully for something new.

Up in the waiting area Kankuro was watching his sister do what she did best, win. 'Looks like she's measured her distance, this match is as good as over!'

Back down in the arena Shikamaru was once again watching the clouds; he then lowered his gaze to the blonde girl standing 15 meters 32 centimeters and 74 millimeters away. He then squatted down, closed his eyes, and brought his hands together in the shape of an open box. He then began to think ahead and formulate a plan of perfection.

Up in the stands Kurenai was perplexed as to what Shikamaru was doing, she turned to Asuma who just 'happened' to be sitting next to her and asked him to explain what he's doing. Asuma gladly tells her about Shikamaru's amazing intelligence and his ability to strategize so far ahead of what his opponent is doing that given the right information on the enemy and motivation…Shikamaru is unbeatable.

Shikamaru's eyes snapped open and quickly focused them on his opponent. 'He's done thinking, now it begins.' Thought his sensei as he watched his favorite student actually apply himself.

"So you have some fighting spirit after all!" She said as she wiped her fan out to attack. Quickly she brought the large fan around and let loose a large blast of slicing wind. Shikamaru quickly dashed behind the tree next to him and slid off his jacket. "There's no use in hiding!" The tree he was behind was getting slashed up pretty badly.

"Come on Shikamaru!!" Ino yelled trying to motivate her team mate.

"Don't 'munch' waste your breath Ino-chan." Chouji said while eating his one bag of chips for the week. "He's going to 'munch' give up soon enough anyway; 'munch' this is too troublesome for him."

"He won't give up! Not after what I threatened to do…at least I don't think he'll give up." She said when she realized her love was right about his friend like he always had been. No one knew Shikamaru as well as Chouji did, not even his parents.

The wind then slowly died down and every one could see the Nara boy still behind the tree in hiding. "You can't hide forever!" Temari said loosing her patience. "Come out coward!!" She yelled as she launched another wind blast in the general direction of the trees. Then suddenly out of the dust came a single kunai, Temari jumped back startled as it came and stuck in the exact spot of her marking line. When she landed she had to quickly turn to the side to focus on another incoming kunai, she blocked it with her fan. But she then looked where she thought her opponent was to see a shadow a couple feet away from her.

She was confident that it wouldn't get her because of the range, but she then began to panic when it passed beyond the line only a few feet. She quickly jumped back to avoid it as it stopped and stayed at its limit. "You're pretty quick on your toes."

"Now I see what you've been up to, you weren't just hiding…you were killing time so that the Sun would get lower and give you more shadow to work with." She stated.

Shikamaru was still standing there in only his mesh shirt and he began smirking. Something was off to Temari, had she missed something? But Temari was thinking about how she could calculate her distance in retrospect to the leverage of the Sun so she didn't give that thought her entire attention. Suddenly Kankuro called out to her. "TEMARI, OVER YOUR HEAD!!!"

She looked up to see the jacket that Shikamaru had been wearing earlier flying in the air with a kunai tied to it like a parachute. She then looked down to see that shadow that it was making appear right in front of where Shikamaru's had stopped. "Oh no!!!" She then dumped back desperately as the shadow weaved to the right, almost as if it was leading her somewhere.

"I've got you now!!" Shikamaru yelled as he watched her dodge his shadow.

She was thinking about how she would now have to worry about the parachute now and any other thing that he could throw in the air. She dodged back again and again, until she and the shadow came to a stop. She had managed to avoid it by jumping far enough away and moving closer to the spot where Naruto had burst from the ground at the beginning of his match. As Shikamaru's shadow retracted back to him she gave him a proud smile for avoiding his shadow. Wiping out her fan once again she stood there in an aggressive stance while she thought of what to do next. "You learn fast, I'll give you that."

'The longer this match takes the lower the Sun gets, I have to end this fast!' She then slammed her fan into the ground effectively making a barrier for her to think behind so his shadow couldn't get her. 'Time to finish this! I'll make a Bunshin and send it out, he'll think it's me and attach to it with his shadow, and then I'd be able to hit him hard with my fan and win the match.' She then put her hands up to make a Bunshin when suddenly she couldn't move. "No!!"

Slowly she was forced to stand, mirroring Shikamaru's moves. "Shadow Possession Jutsu is a success!" There were actual cheers from the crowd more or less in shock that he actually pulled his jutsu.

"How did he do that!?!" Kankuro said in disbelief. Meanwhile everyone else was thinking pretty much the same thing.

'How did he get me with his shadow?? I couldn't reach this far!' She thought wide-eyed knowing she had been caught.

"Look behind you, I'll let you." Shikamaru said as he turned to let her see how he captured her. She turned as he did and saw his shadow coming up out of the ground from the hole Naruto burst from. "Don't you recognize that hole? It's how Naruto surprised Neji to start off his match. The hole in front of you is where he went into the ground…the two are connected."

"Now I see, I never thought of the shadows underground." She said knowing she had lost.

"That was your mistake." Up in the stands Asuma had a proud smile on his face.

Temari was still in shock at being caught by the Nara. 'I don't believe it, the whole time I thought I was keeping away from his shadow attack. But I was really walking right into it! Amazing this slacker clown outsmarted me!' She then looked at Shikamaru knowing it would soon be over.

Slowly Shikamaru walked towards her, making her walk to him as well. A couple of the Chunin watching the watch were reflecting on how earlier the people were throwing things at Shikamaru, but now they were totally captivated by him. Back on the field Shikamaru raised his hand as did Temari, who was cowering in the fact that she was helpless. "Okay that's it, I give up." This made half the people in the audience fall over in disbelief.

"WHAT!?!?!?!" Ino yelled, as did Arashi and Naruto.

"What, what did you say??" Temari finally snapped out.

"I used up all my chakra on that last Shadow Jutsu, I'm good for about another ten seconds…but that's it. Bummer, cuz I'd already planned out the next 200 moves in my head, but my chakra is running low. Anyway, if I was to win this it would only mean more work."

Genma looked at the Nara with a smile. 'This guy is something else.' "The winner is Temari." About 5 seconds later the shadow that was connecting the two genin vanished and Temari had control of her body once more.

"AAAHHH!! What a waste!! What is he thinking, doesn't he want to be a Chunin!?!?!" Ino yelled as she shook Chouji.

He was laughing though. "What can you say, it's Shikamaru."

"Do you think he's motivated enough to be a Chunin?" Kurenai asked Asuma who chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. '"Still his tactics and ingenuity is far beyond that of a typical genin. If that had been a real mission and he had been leading a squad, they would have succeeded. The battle was won the moment he caught her with his jutsu, you could say he won the battle but not the match."

Asuma then spoke up as well "His lack of motivation could be frustrating, but still not having a killer instinct can be a good thing; it means he never lets his emotions cloud his judgment, he never panics, he's able to calmly asses his tactical situation and determine the wisest course of action. He even had the wisdom to retreat if need be, he has something that most of the others lack…clarity, and that's a vital trait in a Chunin and a leader." Elsewhere several other Shinobi were reflecting on how Shikamaru had really won and that he truly had what it took to become a Chunin.

Naruto was fuming up in the waiting area; Arashi had been trying to explain Shikamaru's decision. But he was getting no where fast, Naruto finally had enough and jumped out to give Shikamaru a piece of his mind. When he got down there he started railing off on Shikamaru about giving up when he had won and being lazy. "Geeze, did you forget there are other matches??" Naruto spaced out for a second and then realized his best friend and another friend who he desperately wanted to show up still had matches.

"Come on we need to get up there fast!" Naruto said as he and Shikamaru went back up the stairs. Naruto quickly went in and wished Arashi luck with his match, and then hurried up to the stands to see someone he had been meaning to see and introduce to people.

Genma was still sort of caught up in the results for the next match, so when he heard a very deep voice next to him he was startled a bit. "So how long are we going to wait around before I fight the Himura?" A bandaged boy with a large fur on his back said in an unnaturally deep voice for a genin.

"Oh Dosu, you startled me there for a second. Well we will begin your match with Arashi when he gets down here." He then looked up to see Naruto saying something rushed to the boy. He then called up to him when Naruto had dragger Shikamaru up the stairs to the stands.

"Come on Shikamaru, let's go see everyone. Then after Arashi's match I want to introduce you all to someone." Naruto said with a grin as he pulled Shikamaru along. When they got to the top of the stairs and walked out, they quickly saw the group of their friends with the addition of Sakura and Lee.

Running over Naruto was welcomed with many congrats and two new seats for him and Shikamaru when Gai launched two more people out of the stadium to make way for the 'Youthful Champions'. They both sat down and Shikamaru was almost instantly lost in thought. But Naruto turned at started to talk with Hinata. "Hey Hinata, I have someone really important I want you to meet after Arashi's match."

"Who are y-you talking about Naruto-kun?" She asked inquisitively.

"I want to introduce you all to her after his match so be patient Hinata-chan." He said with a foxy grin.

She smiled at him but then saw that Arashi had finally made his way down to the arena. "Now that you're here we can start." Genma said motioning for the two genin to prepare themselves. "The fourth match, Dosu Kinuta vs. Arashi Himura…Begin!"

Back in the stands many people were talking about this match like they had been for Sasuke's, the Himura were a very powerful clan like the Uchiha and Arashi was the last of them like Sasuke was the last of his people. No one cared about his opponent, but they all wanted to see if he would live up to his family name. There had been a lot of rumors about him concerning his performance in his missions, they were beyond excellent. He had been second at the Academy, and had been trained by a Sannin before the finals. The fact that Naruto had been there as well was known too but not many people cared for the Kyuubi brat, but after watching his fight they were beginning to change their tune. All eyes were on Arashi, waiting for him to make a move. They wanted a good match but little was known about Dosu so an estimate couldn't be made.

After watching Shikamaru's match they were excited, despite him quitting Shikamaru had shown several Chunin qualities that were going to be used as an evaluator against Arashi. The whole stadium was on the edge of their seats as Arashi smiled widely and waved into the stands. About half of the girls that were present swooned and began screaming things to him along the lines of 'I love you', 'let me help you restore your clan', 'I want to have your babies', and many more. But then an intense killing intent radiated from a certain Hyuuga that scared all the girls to almost wetting themselves.

Naruto was laughing loudly when he saw that it was Hinata that it was coming from, and rightfully so. She looked down to see Arashi waving directly at her; shyly she waved back with a blush. This action didn't go unnoticed by the dozens of fan girls who had just found a common enemy.

Dosu just stood there watching his opponent. 'Orochimaru said to attempt to draw out his power, make him reveal just what he can do. He said he was intrigued by him and wanted to know the extent of his powers in comparison to Sasuke's. This should be fun; no one can stop my sound waves!' A maniacal grin appearing under the bandages that covered the majority of his face.

"Not attacking while my back is turned, very admirable. But you should have taken me out when you had the chance, fool." Arashi said as his eyes flashed silver for mere milliseconds, and then a strange grey aura seemed to envelope his body and recede into him leaving an even stranger film than surrounded Arashi a centimeter away from his skin. Sandaime raised an eyebrow to this, so did the Jonin present; they all knew what it was. Normally it was used for rooms and such, they had never seen it condensed to this degree, the judges for the finals jotted this information down quickly so as not to miss anything.

"What did you just do?" Dosu asked slightly hesitant to find out.

Arashi just laughed when he saw Dosu take a tiny step back. "Now…" Suddenly a black and green blur was seen colliding with the stationary Dosu, sending him flying back. Luckily Dosu flipped over in midair and managed to land on a shaky knee. "…the fun begins." He said with a wolf grin.

The judges were once again furiously scribbling his speed down; he had been faster than Naruto had been when he powered up earlier! He was barely visible as a blur to the Shinobi, but he had absolutely disappeared to most of the spectators. In the stands Naruto was smirking. "Show-off." He said under his breath, but most of those around him heard it anyway. At least Lee and Gai did, making sure to pay more attention to him now. His speeds were at the level of Lee's without his leg weights; Naruto saw their looks of awe and wondered what they would think if they knew he was still wearing 400 pounds of extra weight!

Dosu got up and chuckled himself. "It looks like I have no chance keeping up with you, you're just too fast." He then raised his arm device. "But my sound is still faster!" He flicked it and it began to ring in an odd sound, using his chakra Dosu maneuvered the sound waves straight towards Arashi's ears. He knew the match was his when his sound waves hit Arashi, but then the most unexpected thing to Dosu happened.

When he saw his chakra and sound smash into Arashi's head it simply bounced off harmlessly. It had been completely ineffective!! "H-How did it not work!?! That's not possible!!"

"Huh? Oh sorry I forgot to tell you about that little thing I did earlier. I can't hear you right now or anything for that matter. What I did was a Sound Barrier Jutsu; I constructed it to form around my body and to repel any sound coming to me. So basically I can only hear whatever is inside my barrier, thus making all your silly sound attacks useless!" A wide smile crossing his face as he reached up and bit his thumb just enough to draw blood.

Everyone was still reeling from Arashi's proclamation that he had made Dosu useless. The Chunin around were very impressed, getting information on your enemy and using it to formulate a plan that makes the enemy useless is a very hard thing to do. To turn an enemy's strength against them and make it easier to take them down. But now from the action he did it looked like he was about to do a summoning, a skill that should be far beyond a Genin even most Chunin depending on the summon.

Arashi then decided to do the hand signs this time, not wanting to flaunt his kekkei genkai or to even alert people to it. He already thought that when he used it for the Sound Barrier Jutsu that he shouldn't have, but it looked too cool not to. He then concentrated on the right amount of chakra needed to summon who he needed. "Summoning Jutsu!!" He said as he slammed his hand onto the ground. As the smoke cleared it revealed a full grown silver wolf standing in ready attack position, Ragna was ready to fight.

Sandaime nearly choked on his pipe when he saw that it was a wolf that Arashi summoned. 'How is it possible that he can summon them!? Jiraiya told me he though he would be able to do it, but I had my doubts! Arashi, you never cease to amaze us.'

Any of the Shinobi who had learned anything about summoning all had heard of the Wolf summons. They were the hardest summons to gain, they were very picky on who they allowed to summon them. To believe that this genin had been viewed as worthy to summon them was basically verification that he was Chunin material, the judges pencils were flying once again.

"HOW THE HELL CAN HE SUMMON WOLVES!!??!?! HE'S ONLY A GENIN!!!!" Kotetsu Hagane yelled, unable to hold his surprise in.

Probably the most surprised was the Kazekage, he also had heard of the wolf summons and knew everything that was required to be able to attain their acceptance. His eyes widened in anticipation to see how well he would work with the wolf, summoning is one thing but to be able to fight well with one truly would be an amazing feat.

The stands were a ruckus with yells of astonishment, questions, and awe. For those who didn't know the information behind the Wolf summons they were filled in very quickly. Meanwhile in the arena Dosu was wondering what the commotion was all about in the stands, but he was also worrying about this battle. He already knew he would lose, there was no way he could keep up with Arashi and his sound attacks were useless against him. But possible he could use the sound against the wolf and get Arashi to surrender.

After a minute or so Arashi walked over to Ragna and patter his head. "Alright Ragna, you know that plan." Arashi then did a hand sign and touched Ragna, the same film then appeared around Ragna. Dosu's plans had been crushed, now he just needed to maybe land a strong hit against one of them. "You ready for this Dosu!? I'm going to show you an improvement on a jutsu I saw once!"

Everyone in the stands was wondering what he was talking about except for one person who still held a small resentment for the Himura. Kiba's eyes widened when he first saw the wolf, being an Inuzuka his clan probably knew the most about them without actually signing the contract. In fact many Inuzuka had tried to sign it but were all rejected, but now that he saw Arashi had been accepted a secret rage started to build up inside him. Also if he was correct in his assumption then he would be even madder at the boy. But on the other hand, if he had been able to learn that move by just watching it even Kiba couldn't deny his skills. But after all Kiba didn't know that Arashi had control of the Sharingan so to copy his move during his match with Naruto was a piece of cake for him.

Arashi and Ragna spread out and were a little while away from the Sound Ninja. They then began charging at him, throwing his arms to the side Arashi confirmed Kiba's suspicions. "Okami Gatsuuga!!" He yelled as he spun his body at an incredible rate, making a black vortex with hints of green. While Ragna made a glimmering silver vortex, they both shot at Dosu with a speed that vastly surpassed Kiba's Gatsuuga. As Kiba watched the only thing he could think about was 'So this is the power of the Wolves.'

Dosu somehow managed to dodge Ragna as he shot past him in a flash of silver, but when he saw Arashi coming at him he knew he couldn't move out of the way fast enough, she he tried to defend against it. He raise up his metallic arm device to attempt to block his incoming attack, what happened next shocked everyone. When Arashi made contact with Dosu's arm, the device shattered on impact. Spraying metal everywhere as Arashi drilled into Dosu's actual arm, he then was quickly hit hard in the back by Ragna as he circled around. Screaming in pain he fell to the ground when the two vortexes shot back and dispersed, revealing Arashi glimmering in the sunlight with a large smile on his face.

Genma raced over to Dosu to see that he was bleeding profusely from his arm and was suffering from many broken ribs from where Ragna hit him. Also it looked like the bones in his arms had been shattered several times from the force of Arashi's Okami Gatsuuga. "The winner is Arashi Himura!"

The stands erupted in cheers, everyone was applauding for him. Arashi then undid his Sound Barrier and welcomed the cheers with smiles. He looked over to see Ragna taking it in as well. "He you're not the one they're cheering for!" Ragna looked over and Arashi could have sworn he heard a laugh come from his newest friend. He then made a bow and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"**That was some show you put on Arashi, you think they bought it? You held back enough but do you think they saw enough to make you Chunin?"**

'Did you hear them when they saw Ragna? Yeah, I put enough planning and strategy to show them what I'm capable of. I showed off enough speed and power to do the same as well. Plus I showed teamwork when I worked with Ragna as well. But **whatever**, you and I need to have a talk later concerning Naruto!' Arashi then felt Yondaime cut the connection, so he decided to go up and see everyone and watch Sasuke's match. Plus that Gaara guy interested him for some reason.

Arashi made his way quickly up the stairs but a bout half way up he smelled something funny. When he took the time to smell, he knew the smell all too well…blood. He turned to look down a dark hallway, and then Gaara emerged from out of the darkness with the same bloodlust on his face that Arashi had seen in his fight with Lee. After Gaara had passes the shocked Arashi and had gone out into the arena, Arashi went in to see what had happened. He was shocked to find two grass ninja dead and crushed with sand and blood all over the place. 'H-How could just kill like that and be unfazed!?!?!'

"**Hmmm, it's like I thought. He's like you and Naruto." ** This quickly caught Arashi's attention.** "Seeing how he has control over sand, I would bet that he had Shukaku the Sand spirit sealed inside of him. Shukaku is the one-tailed Biju, a Tanuki that was sealed inside a tea kettle. This could get very dangerous."**

Arashi was startled to have found another person just like Naruto and him, but he also wanted to go see his friends. So he tried to push what had just happened to the back of his mind, he then rushed off to see his friends and try to forget what he just saw.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Sasuke, come on we're going to be late!" Kakashi said annoyingly at the boy sitting in front of him who was currently struggling to get the ridiculous wrappings on his left arm and legs.

"Shut up Kakashi, this is something that has to be perfect. I need to look like a badass! My last outfit was just a little too weird with those white things on my arms, I mean what where those anyway? I have no idea!" He said as he was frantically getting the black straps 'just right'.

"Well hurry up, if we're not there soon you could get disqualified. Plus, you wouldn't want Naruto to become a Chunin and not you I bet." Sasuke's face light up at the suggestion that Naruto would have rank over him.

"No! That dobe won't ever be better than me, I'll show him who the better out of us is!" He said letting go of the wraps, making them fall off of his arm. "DAMN!! Now I have to do it again!"

Kakashi simply shook his head at the boy. 'This boy is an idiot! Plus his new outfit looks just as bad as his old one if not worse! It looks like something Anko might wear on my birthday.' The silver haired ninja thought as a blush washed over his face and he let a small perverted giggle escape his lips.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hokage-sama, we can't wait any longer for Sasuke and Kakashi-san. He should be disqualified so we can move on with the matches." Raido said into the Hokage's ear.

Sandaime sighed. "I guess you're right, we've kept these good people waiting long enough."

"Hokage-sama, I suggest that you give them 10 more minutes." The Kazekage said calmly. "Surely we can give them another 10 minutes, after all this is what the crowd has been waiting for. After waiting this long already then what is another 10 minutes to them?"

Sarutobi thought about the Kazekage's words for a minute then told Raido that he agreed with him, and to tell Genma about the change again. With a bow Raido zipped away and next to Genma, after explaining the decision he zipped away once more. The Proctor then cleared his throat and spoke to the people. "Everyone, Hokage-sama has decided to allow Sasuke 10 more minutes in order for him to show up. If he has not by that time, we will move on with the matches!" Everyone murmured at this news but otherwise accepted it.

It was then that Arashi showed up to where his friends were. "Hey Hina-chan!" He said as he plopped down in the seat next to her, then he noticed that Naruto was missing for some reason. "Hey guys, how's it going?" They all looked at him like he was on fire; they were all still amazed at how he had done in his match. "What? Do I have something on my face??" He said trying to snap them out of their stupor.

Hinata was the first one to speak up. "Y-You did w-wonderfully Arashi-kun! I didn't know you could d-do the Gatsuuga." Arashi simply pointed to his eyes telling Hinata how he had done it. "Oh, c-congratulations on w-winning. I h-hope you become a Chunin."

"Thanks Hina-chan, that means a lot coming from you!" He said as he placed his hand on her shoulder. She blushed heavily, Ino and Sakura simple awwwed at them and he could have sworn he heard a low growl. "But it really isn't just a Gatsuuga, it's an Okami Gatsuuga there is a big difference in speed and power. Anou, where is Naruto?"

"He said he had to get someone for us to meet, someone important." Chouji said while Ino sat cozy and snug against him with his arm around her.

Arashi was then basically ambushed by the two Green Beasts of Konoha. "Yosh! Arashi-kun, Gai-sensei and I would be honored if your youthful self would train with us after the finals are over!" Lee said as he and his Sensei were practically begging him to come and train with them.

Arashi knew that after seeing him move the way he did in his match that Lee wanted to test himself against him. But he was a little hesitant at the idea that he might actually spar against Gai. "It would be my honor Lee-san, actually after seeing your fight against Gaara I have wanted to spar with you myself!"

"YOSH! The power of youth brings our minds to the same conclusion!!!" Now Arashi for one had no idea why Lee always kept blabbering on about the power of youth but to say that it affected him was a bold move indeed.

"Yes Arashi-san, I would love to see whose student is truly better. Mine or Kakashi's!" Gai said with a 'ping' of his teeth. Arashi always shuddered when he did that, it just creped him out for some reason.

They had been sitting there trying to tell Sakura that Sasuke would make in on time and wouldn't be disqualified. 'He has about five minutes so he better hurry up.' Thought Ino while comforting her friend.

It was then that Naruto showed up with a gigantic smile on his face. Everyone turned to see him in very high spirits, even for Naruto. It was then that they saw a girl their age with red hair and a nice outfit standing behind Naruto sort of shyly. "He guys! I want you to meet someone, this is Sasame Fuma…" She slid out from behind Naruto and gave them all a small wave with one had, then everyone noticed that her other hand was wrapped around Naruto's. "…My girlfriend!"

Everyone's jaw fell to the floor, Naruto have a girlfriend!?!?! "So this is who you wouldn't tell Ero-sennin and I about that night huh?" Arashi asked, getting a nod from the blonde. "Well hello Sasame-san, I'm..."

"Arashi Himura, I know. And you're Hinata Hyuuga, and Ino Yamanaka, Chouji Akamichi, and Shikamaru Nara. Naruto-kun tells me all about you when we actually get time together. I'm sorry; I don't know the rest of you." She said a little shyly, she absolutly was no Hinata in the shyness department. Only at first, she apparently warms up rather quickly to new people.

"Oh, this is Lee-san, Gai-sensei, and that's Sakura-chan." Naruto said, with another wide grin.

Ino was light up like a light, a new couple to her was standing in front of her and she wanted to know everything. "So Naruto, tell us about how you guys got together!" Sakura seemed to want to know as well, as did Hinata. She had been wondering who it was that Naruto had refused to talk about that one night, she figured she wasn't from Konoha and wanted to know about her as well.

"Well…" Naruto started off.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_(Almost 3 years ago)_

_It was the festival celebrating the defeat of the Kyuubi by Yondaime and many people were there from neighboring countries and villages. Naruto had decided that he wanted to try and go to it. Naruto had left Arashi to whatever it was that he did on that day, they both tended to do their own thing that day. So Naruto was walking down the road to go to the festival when he saw a rather large family go walking by, in it there were several children around his age who were playing together as they walked. But there was a girl his age that would get pushed out whenever she tried to play with them._

_Naruto was curious about this so he followed them for a little bit, eventually the girl was pushed down and the kids left her where she was, she looked really sad. A look Naruto knew all to well, so he went over to her. "Those kids were being pretty mean to you, do you want to go play with me? My name is Naruto Uzumaki!"_

_She got up and looked into his blue eyes as he looked into her brown ones. Both of them blushed slightly from it. "I'm Sasame Fuma, those kids are my cousins. They don't really like me because I'm from the side of the family that left our clan to go to a new village." Before they knew it they were both sitting on a secluded bench on the outside of the festival._

"_So you're from the Land of Rice Fields?" Naruto asked after they had talked for a bit._

"_Yes, we're pretty much the only Shinobi clan in the country so we try to keep relations with Konoha so if we needed help we could get it."_

"_Hey, I'm going to be a Shinobi myself! I'm already in the Academy and I'll be a genin in about 2 years! But after that I'm going to be the Hokage!!"_

_Sasame was in awe of Naruto, normally when someone makes a radical dream like that most people laugh at them. But for some reason Sasame saw in his eyes that he just might become the Hokage. "I bet you will be, Naruto…kun" She said with a blush on her face._

"_Thanks Sasame-chan!" She nearly fainted when she heard him call her that. "Anou, I really don't want to but it's getting kind of late. Maybe we should look for your family?"_

_Even though Sasame wanted to stay thee with Naruto she knew they would be worried as she gave in and went off to look for them. After a little bit they saw her guardian Hanzaki and she knew she had to go. "N-Naruto-kun, I have a great time with you today. This is the best festival I've been to yet! Anou…if you can do you think we could do it again next year?"_

"_Of course!! I'd love to Sasame-chan!" He said with a huge grin that she though made him look adorable. "But is there any other time you come to Konoha?"_

_She thought about it and realized that they go to the Chunin exams twice a year when they are held. "Yeah we come here to watch the Chunin Exams twice a year; we come the day before the final competition. It's held each August and February, I'm sure you'll hear about when the actual day is. Is there any where we should meet at?"_

_Naruto thought for a moment. "Ah! Yeah back at the bench! Do you remember where it was?" Sasame nodded then said good bye until they saw each other again._

_When she ran up to Hanzaki he questioned her as to where she had been, she said. "I made a new friend and I like him a lot!" She said with a smile, something Hanzaki hadn't seen on her face in quite some time._

_(2 1/2years later)_

_Their friendship had grown tremendously over the two years. Whenever Sasame was in town they would meet at the bench then go up on top of the Hokage Monument and chat and stuff. They talked about their lives, what they liked, their friends, and they would occasionally spar a little. Naruto was a month away from the genin exam and was telling Sasame all about school and his friends, especially Arashi and Hinata. But the entire time they were talking it seemed like Naruto had something on his mind._

_They had gotten to know each other so well that they could easily tell certain things about one another. "Naruto-kun, I know you have something on your mind. Do you want to talk about it?"_

_He gulped loudly; usually Naruto had an easy time talking about his feelings. But the thing he wanted to ask just wouldn't come out. He had tried the last time she was here but failed, but he was determined to do it this time. "Yeah…actually it's kind of important Sasame-chan." Sasame moved a little closer to her friend to make it easier to hear him. "We've know each other for over 2 years and we have such a great time with each other. I like you, a lot and I didn't get to ask this last time you were here because I chickened out, but I need to do it now. I promised myself I'd do it."_

'_He couldn't possibly…no, that only happens in my dreams back home when I miss him!' She though while clinging to every word her secret crush said._

"_Well what I guess I'm trying to say is that I really like you…and…'gulp' I was wondering…if you'd…be my girlfriend?" She asked very nervously and un-Naruto like._

_When he asked her she sort of went into shock, her dreams had come true. Maybe not the exact words of 'I love you Sasame-chan' but it was in the right direction. She could feel tears of joy welling up in her eyes. He jumped onto Naruto in a big hug. "Of course I will Naruto-kun; I've wanted you to ask me that for a year now!"_

_For Naruto who had been rejected most of his life except by his close friends hadn't expected this, maybe an 'I'll think about it' but not this. He could feel his own tears of joy rolling down his cheeks. Sasame felt a couple land on her head and looked up at him. "Why are you crying Naruto-kun?"_

_He didn't answer at first; he just leaned his head down slowly and gently touched his lips to her's. After a second or two he pulled back and said. "I've never been happier in my entire life Sasame-chan, that's why." She then pulled him in closer for another kiss; they had taken their first steps down their own road of happiness._

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"And then she had to go the next day. I knew I would be a Shinobi the next time she was here; I never dreamed she would be watching my own match!" He said rubbing his neck with a grin. Sasame reached over and gave him a small kiss on the cheek after he finished his story. The were all listening intently because they thought it was just so sweet and romantic. But Arashi was also listening mainly because it was his best friend, but also for anything he might do when he tells Hinata.

It was then that Sakura remembered the 10 minutes till Sasuke would be disqualified. "On no! Sasuke-kun only has 30 seconds before he's disqualified!!" Naruto and Arashi then thought that is they could distract Genma for a minute or two that he could get there.

Quickly they dashed over and jumped out of the stands, landing next to Genma. "Sorry boys, but you're not stopping me if you think that's what you're doing." He then looked down at his watch. "It's time." He raised his voice so everyone could hear. "The time limit has expired; I am calling this match…"

It was then that Naruto and Arashi noticed several leaves floating gracefully down to a spot next to them making both of them smile. Then in a flash of leaves and wind Kakashi and Sasuke materialized in front of them. "Yo." Kakashi said as he say his two students.

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**Yeah, once again I think I went over board with the chapter, I was thinking all the matches but I wrote more than I expected.**

**I hope you all liked what I did with Sasame and with Arashi's fight. As always, I would love many reviews!! Next chapter should be out in a day or two, less if you review!!**

**So review or I'll hot you with an Okami Gatsuuga!!!**


	15. The Clash of Wind and Fire!

**Review Reply:**

**Static44:** Thanks, I appreciate your rating. Just keep reviewing and I'll keep updating quickly!

**The16thday: **Wow, thanks that means a lot. I actually read your stuff and think it's good. But please since you feel that I am lacking reviews, continue to review my work!

**Harpygirl91**: Well wait no longer for it is HERE!!!!

**Artimis-kibasgirlfriend:** Really? I thought it was original…damn. Also I'm glad you liked it, I know I did.

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto!

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Everyone in the crowd gasped when the two Sharingan users appeared in such a flashy way. Kakashi was standing there in his normal nonchalant way a looking the same. But Sasuke had a completely different look, he had traded in his blue shirt and white short shorts for what looked like a black body condom type thing. He then had odd black wraps over top of bandages on his legs and his left arm. The reaction from the audience varied drastically. The people who had a fashion sense instantly were revolted; it was almost as bad as Lee and Gai's. But the others thought it really looked bad ass, they were soon hit over the head by the ones who knew the truth and then understood.

"Sorry we're late; you wouldn't believe how vain Sasuke is." Kakashi said with a chuckle once most the people got over their initial shock.

Genma was now anxious to get this match underway. "And you are?" He said looking down at the oddly dressed Uchiha.

"Sasuke…Uchiha." He said trying to sound all cool. Apparently it had worked on Sakura who was basically drooling all over herself, making all her friends reel back in disgust. Lee was also looking somewhat depressed.

'Look at him, making us all wait around for him like he's the emperor of the universe!' Arashi though, not liking Sasuke's arrogant attitude at all.

"So you decided to show up after all. I was betting you wouldn't show up because sooner or later you would have to face me!" Naruto said, trying to get a rise out of his friend. Arashi considered Sasuke a friend as well but no where near Naruto's level, he always was extremely passionate for his friends' even if they were cold arrogant idiots.

"So what about you, I take it you won." Sasuke said. Naruto just grinned proudly. "Don't too full of yourself, you're still a loser!"

Then Kakashi took a page out of Naruto's book and began rubbing his neck. "Sorry we're late, uhhh how late are we anyway? I mean its not like Sasuke is disqualified, is he?"

"Actually we extended the waiting period for you…twice. But…no, he's still in it. But just by about a second." Genma stated.

"Good, I was worried there for a little bit. So we're okay…" He looked down at his temporary pupil to find him glaring at the Sand ninja who was standing not 20 feet away.

After an intense stare down Naruto spoke up to Sasuke. "Just don't loose to this guy. Cuz I want to fight you myself!!" Naruto said with a smile plastered on his face

"Got it." The Uchiha said as Naruto and Arashi leapt back up to where they were earlier. Sitting down Arashi sat next to Hinata and Naruto next to Sasame with his arm around her. "We going to get started?" Sasuke said as he broke the glare with Gaara.

Looking over at Gaara at that moment probably wouldn't be a good thing; he was currently giving a look of ghastly bloodlust. Also he was even breathing evilly and couldn't take his eyes off of Sasuke, he wanted to taste his blood and he was making that apparent to everyone who saw him. Meanwhile all of the sand ninja in the stadium were beginning to get a little uneasy, like they were unaware of what Gaara might do. 'This isn't good; he's got that look again.'

Both of the genin walked toward each other, stopping with Genma standing between them. "Okay, this match is just like the preliminaries. It will continue until one of you either dies or admits defeat. However, I can stop the match; but that is souly my decision." Gaara then started to laugh a little bit after Genma finished what he was saying.

Up in the stands everyone was watching intensely, but they were all taken out of their focus when someone walked up behind them. "Hello Gai and I'm sure you're back at 100 Lee-san?"

"Kakashi." Gai said smugly as he turned to face his eternal rival.

Sakura quickly reacted when she saw the sliver haired Jonin. "Kakashi-sensei, you know about the mark on Sasuke-kun's neck right? Well is it…"

Kakashi could see the concern coming from Sakura. "It's nothing to worry about." Sakura's mood instantly brightened up, causing everyone around to wonder what they were talking about.

"He Kakashi-sensei, what are you talking about? You shouldn't keep secrets with another team!!" Arashi said feeling left out a bit.

But Kakashi wasn't listening at the moment, he was noticing to lack of ANBU present at the stadium. "Only 8 ANBU for a stadium this size? What is Hokage-sama thinking??"

"They are probably dispersed in key points throughout the village; we don't know what the enemy will do." Cheers erupted around the two Jonin. "It's starting…we can't afford to let our guard down, but right now we need to watch this match. Kakashi, I'm going to watch your temporary pupil carefully, to see if you trained him right. After all I am still your rival!" Gai said with a tooth flash that made Arashi shiver once again.

Kakashi turned to look at Gai after what he said. "Hn? Did you say something?"

"Damn you Kakashi!! You make me so mad, always acting so cool!!" Gai yelled as somehow a wave washed up behind him.

Meanwhile down in the arena Sasuke and Gaara were having another stare down. The tension could be cut with a kunai as easily as butter. Genma raised his hand dramatically. "Begin!" He said as he leapt back quickly.

As soon as Genma leaped back a sickening grin swept across Gaara's face as his sand arced out of the gourd on his back. Sasuke jumped back to a safe distance in the face of the leering sand in front of him. 'So this is the sand Kakashi was talking about.'

Suddenly a shocked look burst from Gaara's face, bending over he grabbed his head and started shaking. "I'm sorry…please don't get so mad at me…mother. I made you absorb some bad blood a while ago. But this time I promise it will be better, it will taste so very good!" Up in the waiting booth Temari and Kankuro were looking very worried, they had a horrible feeling about this match.

Meanwhile Gaara's actions were confusing to most of the people watching. 'What the hell is he doing, did he call the sand his mother?' Our favorite Himura asked the Hokage in his soul.

"**From the looks of it the Shukaku is beginning to awaken slightly, it looks really bad for Sasuke down there. If he gets too unstable things could turn deadly very quickly!"**

Back down on the arena floor Gaara seemed to have gained some control of his thoughts once again, his emotionless face was back on and he was looking at Sasuke coldly again. "Come on…" He said wanting to fight while the sand swirled around him. Sasuke quickly sent two shuriken lancing out at the Suna Nin, only to have the shield of sand block them. But then a sand clone appeared out of the wall of sand before Sasuke with the shuriken in its hand. Sasuke moved to advance towards the two Gaaras but as soon as he was within range the sand clone's stomach bursted forth like a sand cannon trying to grab onto the Uchiha.

Jumping into the air he avoided the sand blast, then flinging two more shuriken he deflected the other ones coming at him. As he fell he changed into attack form and managed to kick off the sand clone's hands, rotating on his hands when he hit the ground he shifted around quickly and planted a forearm on the clone's neck. But to his dismay the sand moved around his arm to capture him, thus to free himself Sasuke knocked the clone's head off with his other hand dispelling the clone in a shower of sand.

Continuing on after dispatching the clone Sasuke went to strike Gaara with a simple punch, but the sand shield came to his defense. Just as he was about to be stopped Sasuke let out a snicker and a smirk. With a pivot of his foot he disappeared just like Lee had done in the prelims and how Arashi had done as well, his speed had increased to a point where he could move faster than the normal human eye.

Everywhere in the stadium saw what happened and thought of how Naruto had moved against Neji and how Arashi had first hit Dosu, they only saw a blur of black. Lee was astonished that Sasuke had gotten as fast as he was without his leg weights. Without warning Sasuke appeared behind Gaara with a smile, Gaara turned to see him and was thinking about what he was seeing. 'He's fast! Just like that other on!' In the exact same movements as Lee Sasuke connected his fist to Gaara's face, sending him flying and bits of his face falling off.

"So that's your sand armor huh?" Sasuke asked while getting in Lee's signature ready stance. "Come on!" He said with a smirk as everyone in the stadium let a roaring cheer out. "Come on…if you won't…then I will!!" Sasuke yelled as he rushed at Gaara in another burst of speed, Gaara put up a wall of sand in front of himself only to find Sasuke behind him again. Sweeping the sand back behind him Gaara looked like he was about to panic. Gracefully avoiding the sand Sasuke got inside of it and landed a kick square to his opponent's chest, sending him flying once more. "What's the matter, is that all you got?"

'Amazing! He's almost as fast as Arashi-san! I've never seen Sasuke-kun move that fast before, what did Kakashi do with you??' The pink haired fan girl thought as she watched the match below.

Quickly Sasuke dashed off to Gaara who had raised his sand to form a floating ring around him. Sasuke just started to run around him like Lee had done when he used the Primary Lotus on him. 'Astonishing, he's basically the same speed as Lee with his weights off!' Thought the taijutsu master of Konoha. Zipping through the sand ring Sasuke connected with a kick once more, but quickly caught Gaara's straps on his outfit and hit him with a hard knee to the gut.

'Truly remarkable Sasuke, it took me years of work to attain that speed but it took you only a month! You truly are a genius, but it sure looks like it takes a lot of stamina for you to maintain that speed. Unfortunately you don't have the stamina of Naruto-kun and Arashi-kun, but it is very impressive none the less Sasuke.' Lee thought as he saw Sasuke breathing heavily after the burst of taijutsu he had just used.

'What's he going to do now? That sand armor uses up too much chakra, he won't hold out much longer.' The puppet master thought as he and his sister gave a worried look to their brother and then to their father.

"His training…what did you do to him Kakashi?" Gai asked wanting to know what he had done to get such an improvement in the boy. Kakashi looked over actually paying attention to his rival. "To get to such a level in a mere month!"

"Sasuke has copied Lee's taijutsu with his Sharingan, so during training I had him imagine Lee's movements and copy it. Sasuke only managed the copy that taijutsu because he knew Lee, of course Sasuke had to work very hard to master it, even with his Sharingan." Gai's mind was churning trying to figure out if Kakashi had done anything else than teach Sasuke taijutsu, because after all even Lee couldn't defeat the sand ninja.

With a cold stare Gaara moved his hands slowly up and made a hand sign. Slowly sand began to rise and surround Gaara in a sphere of sand. Gaara was trying to seal himself inside the sand, but Sasuke had other plans. Rushing forward a little slower than before Sasuke was trying to get there before he closed himself inside. 'He couldn't possibly be trying to use that jutsu!!' Kankuro thought as he saw what his little brother was doing.

Just as only Gaara's eye was visible Sasuke reached out to land a punch and knock down the sand, but within an instant spikes of sand reached out to pierce the Uchiha as he got too close. Lucky for Sasuke he only managed to get a scratch on his cheek as he dodged the spikes, as well as busting open his hand on the newly condensed sand wall in front of him. Quickly jumping back, he saw that the spikes retracted into the sphere as soon as he got his distance.

'So he's used all the sand as a shield, because of the sand's density I didn't think it could create something that hard! So he's absolutely protected.' Sasuke thought as he weighted his options.

'What's up with that defense? He's completely protected; I wonder how Sasuke will get around it. If I know my sensei, I think I have an idea…but I wanted to learn that jutsu!' Arashi thought while pouting a little bit, Hinata saw it and giggled only a tiny bit as not to distract anyone from the match. "Kakashi-sensei…"

Kakashi merely smiled under his mask and said. "Don't worry Arashi, I have my reason. But you're still my student and he isn't anymore, you'll get your turn." Arashi's eye's lite up light spot lights at this news.

Meanwhile a strange thing of condensing sand began to appear outside the sand shell, it then started to condense into the form of an eye. 'There is no doubt about it, it's that jutsu! Gaara isn't even thinking about the plan at all!' Temari thought as she got more worried.

"Kakashi-sensei, how is he going to get through that? He's gunna get run through if he gets too close to those things!" Naruto pointed out with his arm around Sasame.

"Relax Naruto, Sasuke and I weren't just goofing off during our training. There was a reason we were so late."

"I thought you said it was because of Sasuke's stupid outfit." The Kyuubi container stated, getting a laugh from everyone but Sakura.

"Well that too, but…well it looks like you'll get to see." Kakashi said with a small smile under his mask.

Meanwhile inside his sand Gaara was chanting off the names of hand signs and thoroughly creeping out most people who heard him. With a yell Sasuke bolted towards the shell hoping to break through it somehow without using 'that' jutsu yet. Three kunai zipped out and harmlessly knocked off of the sand, appearing on the other side of the sand shell Sasuke went in to give a hard strike. Like before the spikes shot out and Sasuke managed to only have his cloths rip a little bit before he hit the sand. The strike did nothing so he had to jump back before more spikes came out at him. Quickly the spikes shot out to impale him but he just somehow dodged it while looking very odd. He then leapt skyward and came down for a millisecond on top of the sand, as soon as he touched it the spikes shot out once more. Sasuke then landed in the same spot he had been in, there was no way around it…only through it could he get to Gaara.

'Well that won't work; I don't know what you're up to. But you won't stay in there forever! Well that's fine with me, stall all you want. I can use the time for my new jutsu!' He thought as he snapped off the ridiculous rubber wrappings on his hand with a smile, trying to look as cool as he could. Back flipping towards the wall he jumped up about halfway up and used his chakra to stick to the wall.

When he got up and stationary he started to do hand signs, when he was done he held his left hand downwards and concentrated his chakra. While Sasuke was doing this Gaara was inside his shell and was once again talking to himself about how he was ready to mutilate Sasuke and bathe in his blood. "What's that lunatic think he's doing? How long is he going to stay in that thing?" Kankuro said to his sister.

"I don't know but, he's not following the plan. He's no good to us like that!"

'I say it's time to cut our losses and get the hell outta here!' Kankuro thought with a panicked face as he watched Sasuke charge up for his attack.

But unknown to them their little chat had caught the attention of the bug user standing near them. 'Plan?' He thought as he decided to keep an eye on the sand ninjas by planting a bud on each of them.

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Unknown to the people inside the village a large attack force compiled of Sand and Sound Ninja had began preparations for their assault on Konoha. A large summoning sign had been drawn on the ground and Sand Chunin and Jonin were in the process of beginning said summoning. "Alright you guys we need to get this right or else the plan will fail before it even starts!" Several 'Hai' were heard as they all began to concentrate on the summoning.

'Hmm looks like Sarutobi-sensei's theory was right. The Sand and Sound ninja are working together to try and wipe us out. After the attempted killing of Hayate during the month I was training the kids, he guess that something like this would happen. I guess I better get back at lets the guards that it'll be happening soon. It will let the evacuation get moving faster and hopefully save some lives.' Thought the white haired Sannin who was hiding undetectably in a nearby tree. With no sound at all he zipped away to let the people know what was going on, while releasing a hawk to fly over the stadium.

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Sandaime was enjoying the match thoroughly, especially since it actually seemed like an even match unlike Arashi's. It was then that he was the hawk go flying over the stadium, he instantly sunk a little bit in his chair while maintaining his interested face. 'So it would seem that I was correct in my prediction, it's a good thing we made preparations. Now the question is when you will strike Kazekage-_sama_?' He thought as he returned half of his attention to the match below.

Sasuke was straining as Lightning started to crackle and spark out from his left hand. The chakra was so condensed that is was visible, much like Arashi's Raiton jutsu but it looked much more violent. "It can't be!" Gai said as he recognized the jutsu.

"That's right Gai, if you were wondering why I decided to train Sasuke instead of my own students the last month…now you know. It's because he's like me!" Then everyone looked up to see a wide smile on Sasuke's face, bringing the hand holding the lighting out to the side while ripping apart the wall as he touched it, he dashed down the wall towards his target with what sounded like a bird diving.

"A physical activation! I see, that's what you were doing all this time Kakashi, you were building his speed up to the level required!"

"Exactly." Kakashi said with a covered smile.

"It's amazing! His chakra is actually visible, how is that even possible!?" Sakura said to no one in particular.

'So he's mastered that jutsu already…so this is the power of the Uchiha.' Gai thought as he saw Sasuke collide with the ground making a huge dust cloud that he then erupted from with incredible speed.

"Whoa, I've never seen Sasuke-teme do THAT before!" Naruto exclaimed as he focused on the Uchiha.

"What's with that weird sound? What kind of jutsu is that?" Sakura asked hoping someone would answer her.

"It's a jab." Gai said gaining everyone's attention, Arashi was listening particularly hard. He had wanted to learn this jutsu ever since he heard about it from his sensei. "But this jab is a jab like no other. It's the only jutsu in Kakashi's arsenal that he didn't copy with his Sharingan. It's the weapon of choice for assassination; the secret of the jab is with the speed in which it is given at, and the Shinobi's ability to focus his chakra at the point of impact. Once these two elements, speed and focus, have reached a certain level their chakra actually becomes visible. I'm sure you all saw what Arashi did in his match against Kabuto, when he held back the shot at the end. His is a different type of visible chakra, it's more straight lined like a laser or a gun shot. While this one is more wild and destructive, it is this violent nature of this jutsu that makes it give off that distinct sound that you hear, like birds chirping." Sasuke now got to the shell of sand and saw the spikes coming for him; he easily dodged with his Sharingan. "It is this sound that gives the jutsu its name…" Sasuke the drove his arm straight into the sand shell, piercing it right down to his opponent. "…CHIDORI!!"

Everyone looked on in shock as Sasuke's arm went through the same and broke the shell. "That's impossible! No one can penetrate his defenses!" Kankuro said under his breath, the reaction was the same from every other member of Gaara's team.

Back up in the Kage box, the Kazekage was watching intently as Sandaime looked on in awe. "That jutsu…its Kakashi's!"

Back in the stands Gai continued with explanation of the Chidori. "It's also know as the Raikiri…" He held out dramatically trying to get a rise out of the genin.

"Why is that??" Sakura asked, letting her curiosity get the better of her.

"It got that name when Kakashi once used it to cut a lightning bolt in half before it could reach the ground!"

'Wow! Cutting lightning in half!!' Thought the pink haired girl.

'Yeah right, these old guys and their war stories." Thought Ino skeptically/

"Either it be called Chidori or Raikiri, it's a jutsu of unimaginable power, requiring almost inhuman levels of speed and chakra. But once perfected, it transforms a ninja's arm into an indestructible and invincible sword. With how Arashi is coming along I would have figured you to teach him it. But none the less it is a jutsu that shouldn't be taught lightly!" Gai said turning to look directly at his rival.

"Don't count Arashi out quite yet. Also you're one to talk…right Lee?" He said bringing up how he disapproved of Gai's teaching Lee the Lotus.

In the stands one of the ANBU had an odd look to him, he looked almost suspicious. "It's almost time." He said to himself as the reflection of glasses under his mask glinted against the sun.

Meanwhile Naruto had a hard look in his eye while looking down at the boy who he wanted to prove himself too more than anyone. 'Sasuke…I've worked to make myself stronger, so that I could become Hokage, so that I wouldn't lose to anyone, so that I wouldn't lose to you! But that was before I knew how strong you've become!' He thought as he tightened his grip on Sasame's hand.

Inside the shell Gaara was feeling something strange to him. He could see Sasuke's arm that had come through the shell and hit him in the shoulder, but he was feeling a weird sensation. "What is this, it's so warm and wet…Mother, what is it?" He looked down to see a red liquid dripping down onto his hands. "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! IT'S BLOOOOOD!!! IT'S MY BLOOOOOD!!!!" Gaara screamed in pain for the first time in his life.

"W-What's happening?" Temari asked as he heard his brother screaming. Then Sasuke felt something begin to constrict around his arm, the sand was moving to crush his arm while it was still in the sand. Powering up once again he used the power of the Chidori he had used to rip his arm free from the sand. 'Is it possible…Gaara in pain?' As Sasuke pulled his arm back he felt like something was holding onto it. When he got his arm free he then saw it, something he hadn't seen before, it was a sand colored arm with odd purple veins running along it, it seemed to have claws and didn't look human at all! Sasuke managed to free his arm as he jumped back from it and saw it retract back into the shell.

He then fell down to one knee because of what the arm had done to his, from that angle he managed to look into the shell. What he saw inside would haunt his dreams for many months, he saw the arm swirling around and then suddenly a bright yellow eye with a cross shaped pupil that then pushed out a killing intent greater than anything he had ever felt, even greater than Orochimaru the day he met him in the Forest of Death. This blast of intent was accompanied by a roar that definitely wasn't human and it shook Sasuke to the core.

It was then that the shell began to crack and then fall away into a pool of sand. The Sand ninja who knew Gaara were shocked at this; nothing had ever defeated Gaara's defenses! When Gaara emerged from the sand everyone saw that he was holding his now blood covered left shoulder and breathing heavily. "I was right, he's hurt. The shell broke before the change was complete!" Temari said in concern and amazement.

'Something's different, that's not the same look in his eyes that I saw before!' Sasuke thought before something odd happened.

Up in the stands the ANBU member from earlier placed his hand on a spectator in front of him, suddenly the man drifted off into a deep sleep. He then touched the man next to him and achieved the same results, following that he made a hand sign. To everyone in the stadium an odd feeling washed over their bodies, they began to feel very sleepy and started to see white feathers falling from the sky, lulling them to sleep. Naruto noticed this and watched the feathers in curiosity. "What's going on? Everything's getting all fuzzy…" Naruto said as he drifted off to sleep.

"Kakashi do you feel it?" Gai said as his rival nodded. They both then formed a hand sign and said. "Kai!" The feathers dispersed from around them freeing them from the genjutsu.

Most everyone in the stadium had fallen asleep with the exception of most of the Shinobi who could see genjutsu and two genin. Sakura quickly saw the genjutsu and countered it, being the student of the best genjutsu specialist in the village does have it's perks. But to Arashi he saw it and was trying to fight it. **"Arashi, it's a genjutsu! You have to release yourself from it. Gather some chakra and focus it, then say 'kai'."** Yondaime said from within him. Arashi nodded and focused his chakra. "Kai!" He said as the feeling he was getting earlier washed off of him.

"It's coming…" The Kazekage said to himself as he shifter his gaze over to Sandaime with bloodlust in his eyes. Sarutobi looked over to see what he had expected to see, betrayal. "…now shall we begin?" He said as his body guards rushed forward, letting off a smoke grenade.

Everyone looked up at the Kage box to see it surrounded in smoke. Meanwhile outside the village hundreds of Oto and Suna ninja saw the smoke and leaped over the walls to start their assault on Konoha. ANBU quickly dashed towards the Kage Box to aid Sandaime in any way they could, while Team Baki all looked at each other and thought the same thing. 'The operation had begun!'

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**Okay I know that this chapter is like really short for me, but I've been in a funk lately and not in the mood for writing. Also I either ended it here or this was going to be an uber chapter and it wouldn't be up for like maybe a week or a couple days so whatever.**

**I hope you all liked what I did with this chapter, so please review a lot for this one. I actually got a bunch for the last one and want more!**

**Hinata: P-Please review, the m-more you review the faster I can b-be with my p-precious Arashi-kun! S-So please review!**


	16. The Invasion and the Chase

**Review Reply:**

**The16thday:** Yeah I liked it and all, but not my fav. But I do like the Lee/Gaara vs. Kimmimaru fight. Expect big things from it! But yeah keep reviewing and the updates will come faster!

**Static44:** Yeah I've been wondering how he could turn the fight around, I'm still wondering if I should get him in the fight or watch from the side and see what Naruto is truly capable of.

**Perverted-Hokage:** Yeah I read through the chapter after I put it up and was disgusted with the amount of crap that I didn't catch. So I'll be looking over this chapter more closely.

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto

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"HOKAGE-SAMA!!" Gai yelled out when the smoke grenade erupted from the Kage booth, but quickly squad of ANBU was already on their way to aid their leader.

"Leave it to us and protect the village. Kill the intruders!" The ANBU captain yelled out as he passed the Chunin and Jonin on his way to Sandime.

"What is the meaning of this Kazekage-sama?" Sarutobi asked knowing full well what was going on. He was answered only with a dark look from the leader of Suna that told him what was going to happen.

"Squad one go below and protect the nobles! Squad two with me we must protect Hokage-sama!" Suddenly the Kazekage's bodyguards burst from the smoke with kunai drawn making their way to take out the ANBU. "You will not interfere!!" The captain yelled as he sliced the two in two.

It was then that the sound of kunai striking flesh was heard…Raido had been hit with several kunai. Slumping down against the nearby wall he spoke to his beloved leader. "Hokage-sama, you must flee! Escape now!" He said before passing out from the pain of the kunai wedged into his torso.

Quickly the Kazekage appeared behind Sandaime and held him in a head lock with a kunai at his throat. Leaping upwards the two Kages burst through that smoke screen created below and landed on the roof of the observation boxes. Behind the ANBU squad something odd happened as well, the corpses of the two sand ninja jumped forward as four odd looking people. Jumping up to the corners of the roof, they look back at the ANBU smirking at them. The strange occurrence startle the ANBU for a moment, the four consisted of a very strange man who looked more along the lines of a spider with a Oto headband, a redheaded girl with an odd cap and the same dress as the spider man, another guy with a large scroll on his back along with what resembled a second head coming out of the back of his neck, and a rather large guy with a three way Mohawk. All of these people were wearing a purple sash tied in an upwardly facing bow along with standard Otokagure clothing.

"It's finally time for us to move!" The spider guy said with a smirk as he watched the ANBU looking up at them.

"Yeah it was fucking cramped in there with fat ass over there!" The redhead said pointing to the larger member of the four.

"Cut it out we're team mates and have a job to do. Shut up and let's get this field up!" The larger one said as the others nodded and did a complex hand sign string. As they did this the ANBU snapped out of their shock and leapt forward to dispatch these new threats and protect the Hokage. "Quad-Violet Flame Field!" All four Oto Nin said as a purple box formed around the two Kages.

"Stay back!" The ANBU captain yelled to his men, but one was too close to slow down, slamming into the newly formed field the man burst into flames as soon as he touched the field. Screaming he tumbled away and off the edge of the roof to fall to his death. "Kuso! We can't get in; Hokage-sama has to dispatch the ones keeping it up to be able to break it!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"A field creation jutsu? They can't be normal ninja." Kakashi said as he watched what was happening. Running down the stairs a lone ANBU stood in front of them casually. "What are you doing, go help the others!" Said the copy ninja, but instead the ANBU made a hands sign and several Oto ninja jumped out of the crowd of people to land next to him.

"Kuso, I didn't expect an enemy to be disguised as an ANBU. He must be the one who used the genjutsu." Gai exclaimed as he and Kakashi stared down the enemy.

Behind them Arashi and Sakura were the only ones of the genin to notice the genjutsu and dispel it. Looking around Arashi could see many Konoha Chunin and Jonin had done the same and were looking around to find enemies of their own. Inside the stadium there were several times more Suna and Oto Chunin and Jonin than there were Konoha ones. "Sakura are you okay to maybe fight, we might have to help out here."

She looked over to see the Himura calmly calculating the options that were before them. "I-I don't know Arashi-san. Demo, shouldn't we wait and see what Kakashi-sensei and Gai-sensei have to say to us about it?" Arashi really didn't want to sit around but he really didn't have a choice, Sakura had brought up a good point, there's no point in getting yourself killed when you could help out in another way. He nodded to the pink haired girl and turned his attention to the middle of the arena where Gaara and Sasuke still stood with Genma close by.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Meanwhile on the outskirts of Konoha two Chunin were on watch duty and were complaining about having to miss the matches. "This sucks, not only do we miss the finals but we miss the Uchiha and Himura's fights!"

A bearded Chunin responded to his partner. "Shut up baka, there are two exams a year and anyway Hokage-sama said that an attack was expected so we need to be watching out for that and not worrying about the fights we miss!"

Elsewhere the Suna Nin had completed the ritual for the summoning they had begun. "It's time to finish it!" The commanding Jonin said, making the others put the scrolls they carried on the ground bringing with it a huge explosion of smoke. Inside the smoke the Jonin could see the outline of what they had summoned and smirked. "Summoning successful!"

The smoke eruption easily caught the attention of the Konoha Chunin, looking over they were started when they saw what burst through the smoke. A gigantic three headed snake with odd red neck capes came quickly towards their outpost. "Big Snakes!! The attack has begun, notify Hokage-sama immediately!" The bearded Chunin yelled to his partner, but it was too late. The snake brought one of its heads down on the section of the wall, destroying the outpost and killing those inside it and opening a hole up in the wall for the remaining Suna and Oto forces to come through.

The snakes was now inside the village and no sooner had it looked around did several kunai with exploding tags on them connect with one's head. "You will not enter this village!" A ninja with a mask like Kakashi's yelled out as he threw four more kunai at the snake, but with a quick moment, the snake effectively knocking him away from it.

The remaining forces at the wall landed and commanded one of them to go get backup. But as the man jumped away he was quickly hit with three kunai directly in the back, splattering blood everywhere. Turning around the leader of the remaining Konoha Shinobi looked up at the wall to see five Suna Jonin smirking at them. "Suna Nin! We've been betrayed!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What the hell's going on?" The Uchiha asked as he watched the purple field surround the Hokage and Kazekage. He then heard someone say something about stopping behind him. He turned to see the three sand genin standing there with Kankuro and Temari seeming to be holding Gaara back.

"I'll kill you!" The red headed demon container said as he painfully walked forward only to be cut off by his older brother.

"There's no point in fighting him anymore! Don't forget the mission!" But Gaara only pushed him out of the way and said he didn't care anymore.

Suddenly Baki appeared in front of them. "What are you three doing? The mission has already started!" Gaara then began his pained breathing as he grasped his head. It was then that Genma appeared next to Sasuke as well. Gaara then dropped to his knees while holding his head in pain, getting concerned looks from his siblings.

"His wound is more serious that we thought, and he's used up most of his chakra so he can't use 'it' now." Temari informed Baki, only gaining criticism from their sensei.

"What should we do now, you want us to do this without Gaara!?!" Kankuro yelled, not having a clue on what to do next. Gaara had been their trump card and without him he didn't know what to do.

"Gaara must fight, no matter what. Quickly take him away from here and treat his wounds. Once his chakra recovers…resume the mission!" Baki said as the others nodded in agreement. Reaching down Kankuro grabbed onto Gaara and heaved him to his feet. "Don't worry about me, I'll stop these guys."

Genma then smirked at the clothed man in front of him. "You really think you can stop me?" He said as he moved the senbon in his mouth again.

Baki only stared at his opponent. Then without turning he commanded his squad with a loud yell. "GO!" Leaping up and over the stadium wall the Suna genin made their escape to treat Gaara and leaving their sensei to deal with the Jonin in front of him.

"So…is Orochimaru the one behind all of this?" Genma asked as he moved his hand slightly to his kunai holster.

"I don't know." Baki responded mockingly. "Let's enjoy ourselves for now."

"Sasuke!" Genma said getting the Uchiha's attention. "The exams end here for you; you are already at Chunin level so now be useful to Konoha. Go after those three, only now it's not an exam…it's the real thing!"

"It's the same to me!" He said as he rushed away and made his way for the wall.

"You're not getting away!" Baki yelled as he launched a couple kunai at the boy, only to have them be knocked out of the air by Genma's kunai. "Kuso!" He said after seeing Sasuke disappear over the wall in the direction of Gaara and his team.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"You don't have to do this Kazekage-sama. I'm sure we can reach a negotiation of some sort." Sandaime said trying to avoid the conflict that was to come.

"No, stating now history will be made."

"Are you trying to start a war?! There is still time to stop this Kazekage-dono."

The man holding the kunai to Sandaime's throat then let out a small laugh. "Perhaps when you grow old, you become used to peace…Sarutobi-sensei!" He said with a wide eyed look. Sandaime had a look of shock on his face as Sasuke escaped over the walls of the stadium. "My, my…when Gaara did his thing I was planning on taking Sasuke-kun…but it seems like I can't have everything go my way."

"I see…so that's how it is. You're after Konoha and Sasuke." Sarutobi said. The Kazekage then went on to talk about his victory and how Gaara would destroy all when he regained his strength. "We don't know the result until the end. I believe I taught you that…" The kunai was then pulled from his neck and brought near his face, with a ripping sound the face of the Kazekage fell to the floor revealing what Sandaime had thought would be there, yellow eyes and pale white skin. "Orochimaru! I knew a day like this would come, but don't believe you can take my head so easily!"

"I told you that you should have picked a Godaime Hokage sooner…Sandaime; since you're going to die here!" The snake Sannin said as he liked the blade of the kunai with his freakish tongue.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"They certainly have the numbers advantage. We were too careless." Gai said to his eternal rival. "Plus they have Hokage-sama…Kakashi! Look inside the field!"

Turning towards the purple box Kakashi along with Sakura and Arashi gazed inside of it. "Orochimaru!" Kakashi said, gaining a strong reaction from Sakura.

Arashi was confused a bit about what was going on and was trying to remember if he had head about who this Orochimaru guy was. Then he remembered that Naruto had said that the man who attacked him, Sakura, and Sasuke in the forest was called that. 'Yondaime, who's this Orochimaru guy?'

Arashi could feel the hatred for this man coming from within him. **"You've forgotten again? I already told you about him a bit in the Forest of Death! That man is one of the Sannin like Ero-sennin. He's a horrible excuse for a human, doing experiments on innocent people without remorse all for his goals! He was Sandaime-sama's student and wanted my title, but I beat him out for it when his experiments were learned of by Sandaime."**

'That's horrible! How can such a man exist?'

"**He just does, he's a man of evil and should be wiped from the face of the earth!"**

Arashi's attention was suddenly taken away as he saw two Oto Nin jump towards Sakura. Quickly forming a small Hyoton sword around his arm he moved to stop them only to find that Kakashi had already killed them with a clean sweep of two kunai. Releasing the hold on the sword it fell into a puddle of water at Arashi's feet as Kakashi spoke to the two of them. "Sakura, Arashi…stay where you are for a minute, I'm going to decrease the number of enemies."

All around the clash of kunai could be heard and the sound of bodies falling to the ground. Looking over Arashi saw a Jonin with glasses and an unevenly placed headband torch an Oto Nin with a Katon jutsu. But out of everyone there Gai and Kakashi were putting on the best show. Stopping a punch coming at him Gai instantly countered with a skull shattering blow of his own as the man fell down dead. While Kakashi was dodging slashes coming at him he landed a hard kick on one man so hard that it snapped his spine from where he hit him, paralyzing him.

Coming to a stop Gai and Kakashi were standing back to back while talking and watching the enemy. "I'm worried about Hokage-sama, but…"

"Let ANBU handle it Gai, we have other things to worry about. Plus…Hokage-sama won't lose that easily, he is after all the Hokage of Konoha!"

Xxxxxxxxxx

Back with Sandaime, Orochimaru was overlooking the battle that was raging below him. As Sandaime looked up he saw tears in his student's eyes. "Are you that happy to let tears out, or do you actually have the heart to cry for wanting to kill your teacher." Orochimaru only smiled as he lifter the kunai back to Sandaime's throat, in a flash a splatter of blood was heard and all the Konoha Shinobi look up to see what had happened.

"No, I was drowsy…but I'm awake now." Orochimaru said with his kunai now sticking into his own hand with blood dripping from it. Releasing Sarutobi from his grasp he walked a bit away.

"I know your not here for revenge. Do you not have any goals or motives?"

"I sort of have a goal. Basically I like to see things in motion, when they aren't it gets boring. A windmill that's not moving can be nice from time to time…but most of the time it's not even worth looking at." He said as he flung the Kazekage hat away from him. "Now what I want...is to move this windmill with a wind I call…the Destruction of Konoha!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

To the left, to the right, the Oto Nin fell like trees in a bad storm to the fury of Gai's kicks and punches. He leapt in the middle of three of them and quickly killed them with a kick to each of their temples with a force that scrambled their brains. "Sakura, Arashi!" Kakashi said as he landed in front of the two genin who were being forced to watch. He could see that Sakura didn't want to fight, but it looked like Arashi was using everything he had in himself to restrain himself from tearing into the ninja around him. "I'm glad you picked up on this genjutsu Arashi, and since you're with Kurenai Sakura I expected that you could easily pick up on this. Good job, now I need the two of you to go and dispel the genjutsu on Naruto and Shikamaru."

Arashi looked over to see Naruto asleep in the lap of Sasame drooling on her pants. He had to repress the laughter in him at the sight, but he would be sure to make fun of him later. "Kakashi-sensei, shouldn't we get Hina-chan up as well?"

"No, it's would be best if she was left where she is. There is little chance something would happen; besides I'm sure you wouldn't want her to be in danger." Kakashi said poking fun at Arashi. "Plus Naruto will be really happy; this is the first mission since the Wave Country mission! The four of you need to proceed with caution; this is an A-rank mission, just like that mission."

"An A-rank mission??" Sakura said in disbelief. "How can we do that, we're only genin! Plus what kind of thing in this situation could call for a ranking of A-Rank?"

"It looked like Sasuke-teme went after Gaara and the other Suna genin, we're supposed to go as back up and help him out right sensei?" Arashi asked trying to figure out the situation.

"Exactly Arashi, you're doing very well today." With that he brought his kunai up and cut open his thumb. "Now go and dispel the genjutsu on Naruto and Shikamaru…and go after Sasuke."

"Then shouldn't we do what Arashi suggested and wake up Hinata, have your full Team go after them, maybe even get Ino and Chouji? Have the full teams of Team 10 and Team 7 go and help out?"

"No, teams larger than five would attract too much attention, there are many Oto and Suna ninja around and anymore than that would make them go after you. This needs to be done swiftly, and with that number it would be difficult to conceal yourself from the enemy. You should have learned that in the academy, right?"

Sakura was embarrassed for forgetting the basics of pursuit, especially since it was her team's specialty. "But you said 5, so are you coming with us Kakashi-sensei?"

"No, I can't leave this place. I need to take care of the enemies here." He then did a familiar hand sign sequence to Team 7 and said. "Summoning Jutsu!" From the cloud of smoke that appeared a small dog with a Konoha head band and a blue vest appeared. "Pakkun here will chase after Sasuke through his scent."

"So our other team mate is that doggy?" Sakura said questioningly.

Pakkun then jumped up right to her and surprised her when he talked. "Hey girl, don't call me a cute doggy."

"She didn't call you cute Pakkun." Arashi said with a sigh knowing how Pakkun thought of himself.

"Oh Arashi-san I didn't know you were here. You smell different…more like a wolf than before." Pakkun said as he sniffed the Himura one more time.

"Well that's because I recently got the Wolf summons." He said with a grin while rubbing his neck.

"Nani!! Is he telling the truth Kakashi?" Kakashi nodded to the dog and turned back to look for enemies. "To think that you could be seen as worthy of the Wolf Summons! Well congrats gaki, I guess we should get going, I know Sasuke's scent from when he trained with Kakashi this last month."

"Arashi, Sakura…for the last time go dispel that genjutsu!" Kakashi said as he jumped away to end the life of another Oto Nin.

"Hai!" They both said as they crawled over towards the other two members of the new team. For Arashi it was simple because Naruto was sitting right next to him, he reached over and formed a hand sign. "Kai!" He said as he then touched Naruto on the top of his head. Almost immediately Naruto stirred and opened his eyes, sitting up from Sasame's lap he looked groggily into Arashi's eyes.

"What's going on, I was having a nice dream." Arashi then grabbed his head and pulled him down to dodge a kunai thrown at them; luckily the kunai lodged itself in the seat and didn't hit anyone nearby.

"Shut up Baka! I'll explain later, we need to get out of here. Don't worry about Sasame-chan; she'll be safe as long as she stays asleep. Now we need to get over to Sakura and Shikamaru." The two friends the quietly crawled over to the top of the stairs where Shikamaru was laying for some odd reason.

"I don't know what's wrong, I keep dispelling it but he won't wake up!" Sakura said after trying to get Shikamaru up.

Arashi then saw Shikamaru's eye twitch from Sakura being so close to him. With a sigh he turned to Pakkun and nodded at him. "So you've been awake this whole time eh Shikamaru?"

Pakkun then chomped down on Shikamaru's leg, causing him to scream and attempt to shake the dog off violently. "So you can dispel genjutsu too! Then why were you pretending to be asleep?!" Sakura said while the Nara was shaking Pakkun.

"I don't want to get involved with this, so I'm not going to do this. I don't care about Sasuke." Shikamaru said while messing with Pakkun's face. Finally the dog clamped down on his hand to make him stop, causing Shikamaru to yell out in pain once again.

It was now that Naruto got a good look around, he saw everyone asleep and out of it. He saw the flashes over head and heard the clash of kunai on kunai and the occasional scream as someone died. "What…is…going on?" He said, suddenly an Oto Nin appeared behind him in a flash with kunai drawn ready to make the kill.

"Naruto look out!" Sakura yelled, Arashi once again readied a Hyoton sword to take the ninja out and save his friend, but like before it was handled before he could do anything. In a blinding flash of green Gai slammed the man through the stone wall behind them, and once again Arashi had to dispel the sword into a puddle of water on the ground.

'Kuso, why can't I do anything to help!? Every time I try to save a friend I get beaten there by someone else! It's so frustrating!'

"**Calm down Arashi, you'll get your chance. Just because you want to protect the ones around you doesn't mean others what to do the same as you. If you did it all the time then everyone else would feel the way you do right now." **Arashi sighed knowing that his tenant was right…once again. But he couldn't help it, he wanted to protect everyone around him and make sure they were safe. Especially Naruto, ever since Arashi had figured out that he housed the Kyuubi he wanted to go out of his way to make things better for him. Almost as a way to repay him for the bad ways he had been treated all his life.

"Gai-sensei!" Sakura said not knowing that Gai could move as fast as he had just then.

"You all know your mission, Shikamaru I'm sure you overheard me talking about it and Naruto can be filled in on the way there. Now move!" Kakashi said as he stood defending the genin and making it possible for them to get out of there.

"M-Mission, what mission?" Naruto asked.

"I'll tell you on our way now let's go!" Sakura said as she grabbed Naruto and jumped out of the hole in the wall Gai had made.

"Geeze why does it have to be me?" Shikamaru said to no one in particular.

Pakkun then looked over at the shadow manipulator and spoke to him. "Hey gaki, if you succeed in this mission I'll let you touch my pads as a reward…" He then raised his paw to show the small pink pads on the bottom. "Look, it's so soft and bouncy!"

"Soft and bouncy?" Shikamaru said being very confused.

"Actually…it's VERY soft and bouncy!!!" Pakkun yelled, making no sense what so ever. Shikamaru was still just sitting there with a confused look on his face. "Oh well let's just go." The dog said as he latched onto the Nara's hand once again and dragged him through the hole and after Naruto and Sakura.

"Arashi, I'm counting on you on this one." Kakashi said with a smile. "Make sure to protect them all, I know you will." Arashi then nodded and sped off after the others.

After they were gone Gai turned to his eternal rival. "Do you think they'll be okay?"

"I wouldn't worry about them if I were you; I have the utmost faith in Arashi and Naruto. Shikamaru also showed that he had what it takes to be a Chunin here today, he'll do fine. I'm only slightly worried what Sakura will do." He said with a scowl. But around the corner there was someone listening in on what was being said. After hearing where they were headed all he did was push up on his glasses and flash away.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So it seems Arashi-kun, Naruto-kun and the others have gone to stop Sasuke-kun." The ANBU said to the nearby Oto Nin.

"Those kids? It doesn't matter how many genin go, it's not like they can do anything!" The lead Oto Nin said to the ANBU. Reaching into the cloak the ANBU pulled out some chakra cards, giving away who he is to anyone who saw and knew who else had those types of things. "Are those their cards?"

Kabuto lifted up Arashi and Naruto's newly revised cards to the man. Naruto's had his info listed as "Number of exams taken: First time, Best Move: Kage Bunshin Jutsu/Futon: Wind Slash Jutsu, Possesses the chakra of Kyuubi and great speed." While Arashi's read "Number of exams taken: First time, Best move: Raiton: Lightning Laser Jutsu, Possesses great speed, tactical thinking, and the Wolf Summons"

"You think you're overrating them!" The Shinobi stated after reading the two. "They can't be all that fast, we can handle them no problem."

Kabuto just looked at him. "You're underestimating them. I fought Arashi and he easily defeated me. I almost had to seriously fight him, but I could tell he as holding back. Also with Naruto, if you underestimate an enemy like him…you'll end up dead." They all nodded and zipped away to pursue the genin squad.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I see…so that's what happened!" Naruto exclaimed as the newly formed pursuit team was currently dashing through the forest when Arashi caught up in a flash. "About time you caught up Arashi, seems like your getting slow to me."

"Shut up Naruto, you know that I upped them by 10 pounds after my match!" Arashi said frustrated that he had been slowed down by a mere 40 pounds.

"Anou, Arashi-san what are you talking about? You upped 'Them'?" Sakura asked as they dashed through the trees.

"Oh that, n-never mind about that! Anyway, are we going the right way Pakkun?" The little dog only nodded to the Himura. "Okay, we need to pick up the pace you guys. Our mission is to get to Sasuke and aid him in whatever is going on with those Suna genin."

Sakura could only look at Arashi as if he was already a Chunin squad commander. "So why did I have to get sent out here, this is beyond troublesome!" Shikamaru said as he sped along next to the others.

"Shikamaru, I know you're smart enough to know why you're here. Don't try to play dumb with me, you and I both know either one of us could lead this team. You're just lazy and don't want to have the responsibilities, so I'll do you a favor and take them for you." Arashi said trying to get some sort of change out of Shikamaru, perhaps by challenging him he could get a good thing out of him.

"Fine you got me; I know I'm here if someone follows us! My Kagemane can easily get and stall several enemies at once, allowing the squad to continue on without conflict. You know you didn't have to be so harsh about it Arashi…hey mutt how long until we catch up to Sasuke?" Well it looked like Arashi was right, challenging Shikamaru by saying you had him figured out spurred him into taking control of the situation and dropping the lazy attitude for a bit.

"I don't know how long exactly, he's moving pretty fast!"

"Kuso! Arashi, why don't you and I dispel them and get up there fast?" Once again the other two were left wondering what the two Team 7 members were talking about.

"No Naruto this is a team thing, if Kakashi-sensei wanted us to do that and get there like that he would have only sent us and I could have used Ragna to track Sasuke. But we were assigned this team to handle the situation the best." Arashi responded, not really wanting to have to explain their bracers to the others; but he figured that from the words used that Shikamaru could guess what it might be.

"So if the team is made up of needed people…why am I here?" Sakura asked feeling slightly useless like she felt most of the time.

Arashi was about to answer when Shikamaru cut him off, it seemed like Shikamaru didn't want to be shown up it the thinking arena. "You're here because you're the closest to Sasuke. You know how he acts, what he'll do, how to get him to stop if need be and you can advise us on ways we can change our game plan depending on what Sasuke's doing; or did I miss something Arashi?" Shikamaru said mockingly.

"No you got it all, except I hadn't though of the advising thing. Good thinking Shikamaru, you always have been the smartest guy I knew, just happens you're the laziest too." Arashi said with a laugh and a smile, making Shikamaru figure out that Arashi had been pushing his buttons.

With a sniff of the air Pakkun found something that needed to be told to the group. "Hey guys! Increase your speed…two platoons are behind us…no wait, nine guys are after us!"

"You've got to be kidding! Already, how troublesome."

A while back the Oto Nin were scanning for footprints, when the found four sets and one of a dog they marked off the direction and sped off after their prey.

"It seems they don't know our exact location yet…but we need to loose them." Pakkun said as he dropped down to the ground and took a couple steps. He then stopped and gained the confused looks of Sakura and Naruto. "Now everyone back up onto your foot prints so it looks like then just vanished."

"Even if we do that they'll still figure out where we went!" Naruto exclaimed.

"I'll buy us some time…that's enough right now." Pakkun answered. "Eventually they will get sloppy and miss something. The fewer clues they get about us the better it is for us." He said as Naruto continued to back up in his steps.

"Hurry up Naruto-baka!" Sakura called out as he turned to see everyone waiting for him on a tree branch near by.

"Fine, fine hold your horses dattebayo!" He then jumped back as the others sped off in the direction of Sasuke.

A couple minutes later Pakkun sniffed again. "This is bad, they're gaining on us even though they're being careful and searching for ambushes!"

"Kuso! They must all be above Chunin level then." Shikamaru said wanting to get to it before Arashi. "If they catch up we'll be annihilated!" Sakura suddenly got a little scared from the way Shikamaru was putting it.

"Then we should hide and ambush them!" Naruto suggested, gaining an approval from Sakura of the idea.

"We can't do that." Pakkun chimed in. "They're the men of Orochimaru; worst case scenario is that they have a Jonin with them."

"I thought that might have worked kuso!" Arashi proclaimed as he heard Shikamaru agree with him. Naruto and Sakura then wondered why it could have worked, but while Shikamaru was busy explaining to them the principles of the ambush Arashi was thinking how they could escape the guys chasing them.

After Shikamaru was done with his explanation Arashi decided to speak. "So we only have one option eh?" Sakura looked at him questioningly. "We have to make a feint operation that looks like an ambush…"

"And I have to do it." Shikamaru said gaining looks from Naruto and Sakura. "I have to stay behind, set up things that would look like an ambush and play the decoy. I can effectively stop the pursuers…but most likely I'll…die." He said shocking everyone and making them stop on a branch.

"I'm not going to let you do that Shikamaru!" Naruto yelled out. "I can hold them off with my Kage Bunshins; there is no need for you to sacrifice yourself!"

"I'm not doing it to sacrifice myself baka! I'm the only one who can set up the ambush perfectly and also have the highest chance of surviving it within this group. My Kagemane is designed for this type of thing, don't worry I'll take care of it and catch up to you guys later. Hurry up and go!" He said as he turned around to start his preparations.

They nodded and sped off. "He's right you know, don't worry about him. He's a lot smarter and more powerful than he lets on. I believe in him, now let's go catch up to Sasuke…Sakura we need you to go at your full speed. Naruto and I will match it so go as fast as you can."

"Hai!" She said as she kicked up her speed to its highest, she looked over to see the others matching it perfectly. 'They're all so strong…what can I do here? All I can do is tell them about Sasuke-kun, and I only know so much because he keeps to himself so much.'

Once again Pakkun sniffed the air as they leapt from tree to tree. "The enemy isn't slowing down, is he really going to stop them?"

"Did Shikamaru…" Sakura began to say when Arashi spoke up.

"I said that Shikamaru will be fine and not to worry."

"How do you know he didn't run away?"

"He said he'll be fine!" Naruto yelled at her. "He's foul-mouthed and lazy…but he'll never betray another person. Arashi and I were good friends with him at the Academy while you were fawning over Sasuke-teme, so we know more about him than you do. He rarely does things on his own…but when he does, he does it all the way! We can guarantee that!"

"I couldn't have said it better myself Naruto!" Arashi said knowing his lazy friend was a very trustworthy one, he would stop them…even if it cost him his life.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shikamaru had just finished his planning for the ambush and was watching the clouds roll by over head when he heard the Oto Nin land nearby. The leader of the group looked down to see foot prints. "They're foot steps are irregular, their impatience must be increasing their fatigue." He went to move out and follow the prints when suddenly everyone around him including him were unable to move.

Looking down he saw the shadows below them grow darker and bigger, looking up he saw a boy with a fishnet shirt, brown pants, and a pineapple shaped hair style. "Gomen, I was supposed to be the number one coward of Konoha. But it seems my character is a bit different this time around! It's true that I'm fatigued…but you're wrong about the footprints. This is what I made the paw prints with." The Nara said as he held up a bundle of sticks that resembled a dog's paw.

The eight Oto Nin looked over at the kid and smirked to themselves. "He's still only a kid, to think we fell for this trick…is this the Shadow Bind Jutsu of Konoha I've heard about?"

"That's the old way of saying it, now it's the Kagemane or Shadow Imitation Jutsu…old man." 'Kuso, that match I had depleted most of my chakra. I'm not going to be able to hold onto the jutsu for vary long!' Looking up at the Oto Shinobi he counted that there were only eight of them when there was nine chasing them. 'So the ninth guy was an escort to avoid an ambush. He keeps a constant distance away, travels behind them, and deals with an enemy ambush.' He thought as he pulled out four shuriken and four kunai, preparing to launch them at the defenseless Oto Nin. 'But this will make it clear where he's hiding!'

With that he let the weapons fly at their targets. Just as they were about to kill the Shinobi they were all deflected by other kunai. Now knowing that the ninth one is in the tree to his right Shikamaru thinks hard on what he needs to do. A tendril of shadow begins to snake its way to the tree, but then suddenly stops in its path. "Shit, my shadow won't reach there! I don't have enough chakra left to make it reach!"

"It's useless; we know how your jutsu works. It looks like you've reached your limit, your jutsu will dissipate shortly…you better be ready for what's going to happen!" The lead Ninja said to the Nara.

'Kuso! I just wanted to go through things normally, get paid normally, marry a woman who's neither ugly nor beautiful and have two kids. The first one would be a girl and the second a boy. I would retire from being a Shinobi after my daughter gets married and my son get's a job…then spend the boring days playing shogi and go and live freely from worldly cares. Then I would die of old age before my wife, that's the kind of life I wanted. But I made too much of an effort, which is very unlike me. Maybe it was Arashi pushing me, oh man I've gotten myself into something troublesome.' With a laugh Shikamaru decided to talk to the guys who would kill him once his jutsu ended. "Just like you said, I've reached my limit."

With that the shadow receded, giving the man their movements back. "Oi! Come on out!" The lead man yelled out to the ninth man. "And pop off his head while you're at it!" With a loud crash the man jumped behind Shikamaru, much to the Oto Nin's surprise.

Instead of the man they suspected to come out a different one did, he had bladed trench knives, a cigarette, and was dressed in Konoha Jonin attire with a small sash on him. Shikamaru turned around to see him and shouted out. "Asuma!!"

"I finally caught up to you." He said with a smile as he tossed the dead Oto Nin over to the ground next to him, taking off he sped off and landed a chakra enhanced blow to the leader's head; killing him instantly. With a spin he lopped off the head of a near by man, then two kunai landed in his back. With a puff of smoke a log appeared as a replacement with the real Asuma coming down from the sky to land a massive kick on both that snapped their spines. Two more Oto Nin leapt at him from behind but were painfully stopped by an elbow to their gut, knocking them both out. Dodging another kunai Asuma leapt high into the sky, getting lost in the glare of the sun. Coming down he landed a bone shattering kick to the man's face. Picking the dead man up he used the corpse as a weapon and flung it at the last ninja slamming him into a tree breaking his spine. All Shikamaru could do was watch in awe of his sensei. "Well done, Shikamaru

Shikamaru then sat down quickly so he didn't collapse. "This isn't my thing!" He said gaining a hard laugh from the Hokage's son.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hurry up Kankuro!" Temari yelled to her brother. 'We now have extra pursers now…three…no four.' "Kankuro, we're going to pick up our pace!" She said as they raced off to gain distance from the Uchiha and the group behind him.

After many hours of fleeing they stopped for a moment to plan some traps. "How does it look Temari?"

"He's close, he'll be here soon."

"Kuso! What should we do?"

"Just leave that to me." She said as she pulled out some metal wire, preparing to set some little 'presents' for the Uchiha.

A while later Sasuke could be seen jumping from tree to tree like a little monkey when below him an explosive tag went off when he passed over head. Leaping out of the way he ran into another tag that blew up as soon as he touched the tree it was attached to. Again and again he dashed from the tags only to find more waiting for him.

A while away from there Sakura put her head up from the sounds of the tags. "What was that?"

Naruto and Arashi landed next to her as Pakkun fell on top of Naruto's head much like Akamaru did with Kiba. "Explosions, probably traps set up for Sasuke." The dog said to the girl.

"Don't worry Sakura, Sasuke won't die so easily." Arashi said as he put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. She turned and looked into his eyes to see that he was actually being nice to her.

'Ah crap I've seen that look before. It's the same one she gives Sasuke-teme all the time. Hinata-chan will freaking kill Sakura if she even tries anything with Arashi. But poor Arashi, he's such a good ninja but can't tell when a girl likes him. I kinda feel sorry for the guy.'

"So…Arashi-kun…" Naruto immediately picked his head up when he heard her refer to him the way Hinata does. "Since we're out here why don't you tell me a bit about yourself? Since I'm always with my team I don't really know much about you."

"Oh Kami! He's really not going to pick up on this is he?" Naruto said under his breath as they jumped through darkness under the trees. Long ago several dark clouds had covered the sky so that it now appeared to be night.

"Really! How dense can Arashi be? He showed to be really smart earlier in the day, is he just girl stupid or something?" Pakkun whispered in Naruto's ear from his perch in his head, gaining a small laugh and a nod from Naruto.

"Anou…now that you ask I guess it's true that you don't really know much about me. Okay, well I'm the last of the Himura kinda like Sasuke is with the Uchiha. Naruto and I are best friends and have been together since we were about four when we met at the orphanage. My precious people are the most important things in my life and I'll do anything for them, like Hina-chan, Naruto, Chouji, Shikamaru, Oji-san, Kakashi-sensei, and the rest of the group from the Academy. I guess Ino fits in there now because she's so close with Chouji now."

Sakura was put back at this; she had known pretty much all of the information. But what threw her was that he hadn't mentioned her or Sasuke. She knew that from the academy his group of friends had everyone in the rookie group in it excluding her, Sasuke, and Ino. But recently he's gotten a lot friendlier with Ino because of Chouji. That boy really had brought out the best in her. "Anou, am I or Sasuke-kun in that group of people?" She asked wanting to know.

Naruto slapped his face knowing that Arashi was going to just be as blunt as ever when he didn't see how a girl was feeling. "Well not really, I never really got to know you because you were all over Sasuke, and I really don't like him because of the way he acts and treats people like they're below him." He said as Sakura had her new hopes crushed.

She slowed down a bit to let Arashi lead the way as Pakkun jumped to his head. "Naruto, what's with him?"

"Yeah sorry about that Sakura, he's completely dense when it comes to women. But he's right about the Sasuke thing; he really doesn't like him because of his attitude. Plus if you value your health I would keep those kinds of thoughts off of Arashi."

"What kind of thoughts??" Naruto just raised an eyebrow to her to let her know that he saw it. "Fine…so what. He's cute, and why would it be better for my health if I didn't think that?"

"Well to put it bluntly…Hinata-chan would kill you if she heard that you started liking him."

"Hinata? Why would she…" Sakura then remembered what had happened during the finals when the newly formed Arashi fan club started yelling things to him how Hinata had let off a more powerful killing intent than she had ever felt. "Okay I get it Naruto, I- I think I'll stick to your advice."

It was then that they approached the area that had blew up earlier, passing though it there were no signs of Sasuke so they all figured that he had made it out of there in one piece. As they left that area they saw the Sun burst though the clouds and illuminate the forest once again.

It was also then that Sasuke finally caught up to Gaara and his siblings. "I've got you now; this is it for you all."

"Kuso...Sasuke Uchiha!" Temari said as she stared down the guy who had chased them for hours.

Holding up a kunai, ready to launch it at the Suna Nin he spoke up. "You're not going anywhere, now."

Back with the pursuit team they were still leaping through the forest when Pakkun spoke up. "Sasuke has caught up with them! But we still have a ways to go before we get there…this scent!" Pakkun suddenly stopped when he noticed something.

"What is it Pakkun, someone else chasing us?" Arashi asked of the small dog.

"I didn't notice it until now…" Everyone got visibly tense as the dog slowly let out his words. "You…use the same shampoo as me!" He said to Sakura who instantly turned white as a ghost and began babbling things under her breath as she wobbled away, gaining hysterical laughs from Naruto, Arashi, and from Yondaime who heard the whole thing.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Up ahead the Sand Siblings were not having a good time. Temari, Kankuro, and the unconscious Gaara were finally cornered by Sasuke who was staring them down from the branch of a nearby tree. "Kuso, what do we do Temari?" The puppet master asked of his sister.

"Take Gaara and run!" She said as she launched three kunai at the Uchiha, who easily dodged them. Flipping around and landing on a higher branch she called back to her brother. "Let me deal with him!"

"But Temari, you can't handle him alone!"

"Don't worry about it; this is an important mission for Suna. We need to prioritize Gaara's condition. Now go Kankuro and make sure he heals ups bit!" He nodded and leapt off dodging a couple kunai from their pursuer.

"You're not getting away!" Sasuke yelled as he attempted to chase after the other two genin. But as he got up to the level needed to chase after them he was met with the wind user I standing in front of him. She smiled at him and blasted him with a current of air that forced him back onto the trunk

Temari was now standing with he fan open and in front of her to protect from anything shot at her. 'This is bad…I don't have much chakra left. Plus my opponent is the Uchiha!' Sasuke then jumped up to a level view with his opponent. 'Also if he uses his Sharingan I'm going to be at an even bigger disadvantage, but I need to make him waste a lot of chakra and buy Gaara some time to rest up.'

Meanwhile Sasuke was also thinking about how to come out of this in the best shape. 'Should I get it over with and finish her off with Chidori? Or should I make this quick?'

He barely had finished his thought when he jumped up and flung several shuriken at his enemy trying to conserve his chakra. But easily they were deflected by a current of wind coming from the fan that Temari carried. Landing at a standstill once again they continued to stare down each other. 'So he is trying to conserve his chakra for a battle with Gaara.' She then whipped her fan around and yelled. "Slicing Winds Jutsu!" She then let the blast of deadly wind race towards her target. He easily jumped back as the tree was sliced in two; again he dodged the winds that would have cut him to pieces. "Another!" Temari said as she let another blast out, Sasuke once again leapt out of the way and let eight kunai fly at her. "Don't underestimate me! Dust Wind Jutsu!"

Sasuke was pushed back against the tree at his back and was then forced to take cover as the wind came closer to him. But instead of slicing the tree to pieces in somehow sand started to settle down on the branches around them. 'Kuso, I need to do something about that damn fan! I have no choice…' He thought as he finalized his plan. With a flash he appeared on an even branch with Temari, making a series of hand signs he spoke the name of the jutsu. "Katon: Balsam Spread Fire!" Dozens of fireballs shot out of his mouth and raced towards the Suna girl.

Jumping back in a dive she dodged the fire and fell down to the ground along with them, hiding in the flames that shot from the ground where she had landed, looking up she saw Sasuke ready to unleash another attack at her. "I've trapped her in it now! Katon: Goukakyuu Jutsu!" He yelled as a gigantic fireball slammed down on the girl below him. Looking at the flaming inferno below him he scanned to see if he had gotten her with his attack. But to his surprise he was met with a blast of slicing winds aimed right at him, taking evasive actions he dodged back with a flip and managed to land on a near by branch. But he then slipped on the sand that had been put there by Temari's earlier attack, she had caught him in hr trap and as he plummeted down to the earth she made her attack.

Launching three kunai into him Sasuke fell with a yell as Temari smirked at the fallen Uchiha. Walking forward she was shocked when she got closer, Sasuke puffed into a log. "Replacement!?!" She said as she looked around for the real Sasuke, it was then that she heard the burning of an explosive tag. Looking down she say the tag attached to the log and ready to blow. "Kuso!" Then the tag went off, flinging Temari back onto the ground and making her land hard on her fan, which slammed into her back injuring her badly.

With a flash the real Sasuke appeared on an above branch. "Gomen, but I don't have all day to deal with you." He then left in the direction that Kankuro and Gaara had taken off in, leaving Temari sitting on the ground in defeat.

"Kuso…I have to protect Gaara…I wasn't even worth the time to kill."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kankuro was currently carrying his little brother along by himself after Temari had insisted that she take on the Uchiha. He was slightly worried after he heard a rather large explosion a minute or so ago. Suddenly he noticed someone closing in on him fast. "Kuso…then that means…Temari!" He said as several shuriken came flying his way giving away who it was. Using as much agility as he could at the moment, he managed to not get hit by any of the incoming projectiles. Stopping, Sasuke appeared in from to the fleeing Suna Nin. With a glare from the both of them Kankuro spoke up. Bring it on; I'll be the one to fight you this time, then."

"Wait!" Said a female voice to Kankuro, out of the trees an injured Temari came out holding her back.

"Temari? When he showed up and you didn't I thought…"

"No, he didn't kill me for some reason. I couldn't stop him at all."

"No, you gave Gaara enough time to recover and you made him waste some chakra. You did enough. Now it's my turn to help!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The other group of Konoha genin was currently going at Sakura's full speed in order to get there as fast as possible. With another sniff Pakkun informed the others of their progress. "I smell Sasuke…we've caught up! But there are others around him…they've stopped completely."

Arashi didn't like that sounds of that, it could only mean that Sasuke was planning on taking them all on. With all the time that had passed Gaara would no doubt be almost fully recovered because of Shukaku. "So then that teme is going to try and take them all on!"

With another sniff Pakkun noticed something else there. "Hey! There is someone else other than us after Sasuke, and it smells odd…like a clump of things!"

"Who could it be? An enemy or ally?" Naruto asked the little dog.

"I don't know, but…it doesn't smell human." He said dramatically, but from this description Arashi and Naruto had an idea who it might be.

With a laugh Naruto spoke up. "Don't worry about that, he's good and will probably help out a lot."

"Who is it Naruto?" Sakura demanded, not liking that she was completely out of the other two's loop.

"I'm surprised Sakura, I would have though you could have figured it out…he's on your team after all!" Naruto responded gaining a wide eyed look from the pink haired girl.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sasuke was staring down his enemies, when the one with the wrapped thing on his back jumped forward and yelled at the fan wielder to take Gaara and run once again. Looking like he was ready to fight Sasuke chuckled at the fact that the guy thought he could take him on. "Looks like I'll have to fight you now." He said as the girl and Gaara leapt off once again, all this running away was starting to annoy Sasuke.

"I don't care who I have to fight to get to Gaara." Sasuke said with a smile, he then felt a familiar chakra appear near him.

"No, he's mine Sasuke." His bug using team mate said.

"Shino! How did you find us?" Sasuke said almost completely forgetting how the Aburame operated.

"I find it hard to believe that you have forgotten about my tracking bugs on all of my team mates. I've explained it to you before so I find no need to do it once again." Sasuke now remembered, Shino a certain but planted somewhere on him that would easily lead Shino to him if he needed to find him. During training with Kakashi he thought he could lose it by switching cloths, but apparently not. "Go ahead after Gaara, I'll handle this one. After all we both had matches with the other, but mine never got under way."

Now Kankuro was worried, the whole point was to stall Sasuke and give Gaara more time to recover, but with Shino here it would destroy that chance. "You seem rather confident today Shino, you sure you'll be okay?"

"There is no need to worry, just give me ten minutes and I'll catch up to you" With a laugh Sasuke jumped off after the reaming enemies and left his team mate to deal with the other one.

Jumping at a fast pace Sasuke seemed to be getting closer by the minute, it had only been about five minutes since he had left Shino with the face painted freak. Suddenly Sasuke heard a very loud scream come from where he had just come from. From hearing that scream before on missions he knew that Shino had succeeded in getting at Kankuro with his bugs. With a smile Sasuke now didn't have anything to worry about to he sped off towards his enemies.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hearing the scream Arashi cringed at the sound, sniffing the air Pakkun came to a halt as did everyone else. All except Naruto who simply looked behind him but failed to see he was sailing directly into a tree. Arashi closed his eyes knowing what was to come.

"Wham!" Naruto slammed head first into the tree, leaving a Naruto shaped outline on the bark. "Why do you guys have to stop so suddenly!!?"

"The guy you said you knew just finished his battle, I don't know who won but both of them seem to not be moving." Pakkun told the group.

"Well I know that whoever Shino-san was fighting is down because I've heard that scream several times before. But I don't know why Shino-san would be down, should we go check it out?"

"No, we need to catch up with Sasuke. It's our mission and we need to do it as fast a possible, so we need to veer off to the side to avoid them in case some one else is there. Right Pakkun?" Arashi said as the dog took up at the Himura annoyed.

"Yeah that's right, you know it would be a lot easier if I could explain some things ever now and then. You're to smart for your own good!" He said as they raced off once again to catch up with the group ahead of them.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Trees were flying by at a rapid rate when Gaara finally opened his eyes. 'Where am I, I remember I was in the arena with…that Uchiha. But now I'm in a forest and someone's carrying me…Temari?' He thought as he looked up to see his big sister. "Put me down Temari."

She looked over, surprised to see him able to move so quickly. "Are you sure you're able to move?" She said as they stopped on a branch and she put Gaara down to let him stand on his own. As soon as she did he once again grabbed his head in pain, Shukaku was influencing him again. She looked down to see his wound and decided that now was the time to treat it. Reaching into her shirt she found an ointment that would help her brother.

Then a sound made Gaara's head snap around. "Go away Temari!" She was confused at why he was saying this, trying to argue against it he raised to his feet. "Jut go over There!" He said loudly as he slammed her with a backhand that sent her flying away and slamming into a tree. "You're in the way!" Now standing alone on the branch he closed his eyes to calm himself down.

Upon opening them he saw what he figured he would see…Sasuke Uchiha glaring at him not 30 feet away. "I don't know what you Suna guys are planning, but whatever it is…I'm going to stop you!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**First of I would like to apologize for taking so long to update, I've been really busy and not in the mood to write. Secondly before anyone brings it up I didn't skip the Hokage fight, I'm making that a separate chapter along with all that's happening in Konoha.**

**Other than that, I only have to say that everyone needs to review! I'm not going to update until I get 10 reviews for this chapter, so everyone who reads it should review!!**


	17. The Destruction of Konoha!

**Review Reply: **

**Harpygirl91:** Thanks for the compliments; I also think that by following the story line makes it better.

**Perverted-Hokage:** Well I actually proof read this one after I looked over some of the others and saw lots of errors. But yeah, I was really busy for a week or so, so I couldn't write.

**Edengrave:** Well I'm sorry that you've lost interest in Arashi, but this area of the story is very Naruto dependent. But once I get to the Tsunade arc there will be much more character development and other things. So keep reading and reviewing, I'm looking to make sure my 'fans' love what I'm doing.

**Daemon452**: I explained it to you in the PM, but things will get better as Naruto progresses.

**The16thday: **Yeah, I keep hearing from people that the fights are good but I really don't think I'm doing that good a job on them. Oh well if you guys enjoy them, just keep reviewing!

**Chosha Kurenai:** Well you're going to have to wait and see about the Akatsuki dealyo.

**Disclaimer: **I do NOT own Naruto

**I do have to say that this is one of my favorite fights so it's going to be good!**

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Breaking his gaze from his old student, Sarutobi glanced over at a group of young Shinobi fleeing the stadium. Upon further observation he noticed that it consisted of Arashi, Naruto, Shikamaru, Sakura, and the youngest of Kakashi's ninken. 'They must be following Sasuke and the Sand team…I hope you can help out, we are going to need all the help we can get. Arashi, Naruto…keep this village safe.' He then turned to bore his glare into the Snake Sannin once more.

With a slight chuckle the pale man spoke to his old sensei. "To think that I can fight with you again…I can't wait!" He said as his eyes light up with blood lust.

To the ANBU captain who was forced to watch from the sidelines he was desperately trying to analyze the situation in order to help his leader. He then realized what could be done and shouted out. "Hokage-sama, if you can kill one of those four…then we can come and aid you!" Hearing the words of the ANBU in front of him the spider man smirked and raised his extra hands behind him. All the others understood what he was doing so they responded by concentrating more. Then a second field covered each one of them, effectively sealing them inside a little protected place. No one could get in or out without them deactivating the field. "CRAP!" The ANBU yelled when he saw the new developments.

"Hm, it looks like I can't leave so easily." Sandaime said half jokingly.

"You must be kidding. For someone like you I'd think it'd be harder to fight if other people interfered. They would be nothing more than…a distraction." Orochimaru stated and got in return a small laugh from the aged Hokage.

A cooling breeze blew by the two Shinobi as they stared each other down. In a flash they leapt towards the other, with a fast sequence of hand signs Sarutobi calmly said. "Tile Shuriken Jutsu." As he did around a dozen of the roof tiles lifted out of the spots they lay in and shot directly at Orochimaru as if they were shuriken.

Jumping into the air to avoid the deadly tiles he made a hand sign and shouted. "Not good enough Sarutobi-sensei! Hidden Snake Hands!!" He then rotated his head and shot his disgustingly long tongue at the Hokage, but as soon as it left his mouth it changed into the form of a snake. Reaching its target the snake bit down hard onto Sandaime's neck, causing him to grab the snake in pain. "Having trouble with this kind of attack? It really shows how much age can affect you…Sarutobi-sensei!" The snake Sannin said in a mocking tone as he fell back down to the roof planning a second attack, but it was then that the Hokage in front of his turned to mud, began losing its shape, and fell to the ground in a dirty heap of earth. "Replacement!" He said as he landed, whipping his tongue back into his mouth he looked around for his enemy.

Orochimaru was startled for a second when Sandaime appeared behind him with a jutsu ready use. "Doton: Moving Land River!" As he did this the roof under Orochimaru's feet turned into a flow of mud that took his footing away as he was swept down the roof. Looking up while barely managing to not get swept into the field and get burned Orochimaru saw that Sarutobi was about to unleash another jutsu at him. "Doton: Earth Dragon Missile!" From the top of the mud flow the head of a dragon formed and from its glowing mouth numerous projectiles of mud went flying at the man caught below. "I'm not done yet! Katon: Fire Dragon Missile!" He said as he breathed out a hot blast of fire that was heading straight towards Orochimaru. But instead of hitting him directly it ignited the mud missiles from that were on course to strike him.

Orochimaru light up like kindling when the flaming mud missiles hit him, falling back wailing in pain he was washed over with the mud river and disappeared from sight. Looking down Sandaime let a scowl out as he oversaw the effects of his attacks. "Cut the stupid acting Orochimaru."

With a sickening laugh the Snake Sannin slowly rose straight out of the ground completely unaffected by the attacks he was just hit by. "Very good Sarutobi-sensei, but you must be underestimating me if you thought you could kill me with those petty attacks!" He said as a large smile grew on his face as he anticipated the fight to come when toy got serious, he couldn't wait to show him That jutsu.

"You're as disagreeable as ever."

"Now now, don't say that. Don't they say troublemaking students are more agreeable…Sarutobi-sensei?" He said manically as he licked his lips with that odd tongue of his. "Perhaps we should stop fooling around; I did want to witness some of this village's destruction myself. After all…this isn't an academy class."

Reaching up and grabbing his Hokage hat and robe Sarutobi laughed. "For once I agree with you…." He dramatically threw up the Hokage robes to reveal him standing in a battle position in his full Shinobi attire. An all black suit with the kanji for fire on the back and fishnet armor underneath that extended down to his wrists and ankles. A rather large bracer that covered his right arm from the hand to the elbow, shuriken holsters strapped to his back, and his unique Shinobi Helm with long black ties that fell all the way to the ground with some extra length to go.

"So you were expecting your death." Orochimaru said as he ripped off the remaining Kazekage outfit to reveal the Otogakure standards that the other four on the roof wore, the purple bow sash, tan tunic with black sleeves, along with brown pants. The two then proceeded to stare each other down.

Behind the barrier the ANBU squad was being forced to sit back and watch their leader go head to head against an S-Class criminal. Just sitting there was difficult for an ANBU, the killing intent and sheer amount of chakra that they were displaying was actually making it difficult to breath along with making to entire roof shake an begin to crack under the pressure of their power. "I hope you know I'm not going to go easy on you just because you're an old man." Orochimaru said jestingly.

"I would expect no such handicap, but depending on your performance here I might decide to send you back to the Academy to redo your training." Sandaime said joking in a fatale situation.

"Just please don't disappoint me." The pale freak said while enjoying the thoughts that were running through his head.

In a flash they were gone once again and charged at each other, reaching behind him Sandaime pulled out a single shuriken and flung it at his ex-student. Orochimaru merely smirked seeing the old Hokage try with just a single shuriken, but Sandaime wasn't done there. Bringing his hands up into a sign very familiar to a young blonde demon container, he said. "Shuriken Kage Bunshin Jutsu!" Suddenly the single shuriken turned into about a hundred, still flying directly at the Sannin.

Smiling Orochimaru began to go through hand signs himself, while laughing inwardly at the fact he had to use this jutsu so early. Stopping with only a couple seconds before the shuriken could tear him to shreds Orochimaru finishes his sequence and slams his hands to the ground and calls out the jutsu's name. "Summoning, Edo Tensei!" Sandaime instantly glared at his opponent when he heard the name, not believing that he could actually sink that low to use that jutsu. "First!" Orochimaru yelled out as a purple plasma-like hole opened up in front of him as a wooden coffin with the word 'First' written on it rose to block the incoming shuriken. "Second!"

'He's using the summons as a shield! If I know my student, then I can guess who's in those things…also who he thinks will be in the third coffin!' Sandaime said as he saw the shuriken slam into the coffins with only the sight of one of Orochimaru's evil yellow eyes looking at him with a smile.

"Fourth!" He yelled as a third coffin rose up next to the second coffin. "HA! You're a fool Sarutobi-sensei; you should have tried to stop the last one. Now it's time to die!" Orochimaru screamed out in joy as the lid to the last coffin slowly opened up and fell to the ground letting smoke pour out of it.

'Just as I thought, he couldn't do it. After all his soul isn't in the other world…it's still here…inside Arashi.' Sandaime thought with a smile that almost instantly turned to a frown when he saw what was actually inside the coffin.

As the smoke parted the furry form of Dosu Kinuta's corpse could be seen inside the coffin, slumping over he fell out of the coffin to come to as rolling stop just in front of Orochimaru's vision. "WHAT!!! How did his soul not come back? I did everything right, that idiot should be Yondaime Hokage right now!" He looked up to see Sandaime laughing at his antics. 'There must be something that happened that I don't know about…but if…Yondaime's soul isn't on the other side. Then that means that…' Orochimaru's eye widened as he thought on the subject. '…Then he's still here somewhere, but where?'

Coming down from his slight laughter Sarutobi took on a very serious look as he saw the doors to the other two slowly start to creak open. "You're the fool Orochimaru."

"Even though I miscalculated this one time doesn't mean that the other two can't do anything without the other…on the contrary, you'll still die. Just not the way I wanted, by the hands of the man you chose over me to become Hokage! Although I am now interested as to the whereabouts of Namikaze-san's soul." Orochimaru said as the doors to the coffins fell to the ground with smoke billowing out of them.

'Even without Arashi-san, fighting those two again is going to be trouble. Out of all the people he could have called, why did it have to be you two…sensei!' Sandaime thought as the smoke cleared to reveal the exact one's he wished it wasn't.

Outside the field the ANBU captain reached oddly when he saw the bodies inside the coffins. "I-It can't be!! Not those two!" He said, drawing the looks of the two remaining others with him.

"Now what will you do now, Sarutobi-sensei? No…Sandaime Hokage-sama?" He said as the two bodies walked out of the coffins and looked directly at the aged Hokage in front of them.

One was a man with dark long hair, a black body suit with red metal feudal armor over it, standard black Shinobi sandals, and a Konoha head band. The other had basically the same thing except his armor was blue and had a white fur lining at the top of the shoulder straps. He had silver hair, three light orange tattoos on his face that looked like slight slash marks on each of his cheeks and his chin, eyes that looked to be the same color as the tattoos, along with a metal forehead protector of Konoha that sloped down to cover the sides of his face as well. These men were the Shodai and Nidaime Hokages! "It sure has been a long time…Saru." The man in red said to Sarutobi.

"Oh? It really is you Sarutobi…you sure have aged." Nidaime said after he realized who it was in front of him.

"I didn't expect to see you two again, and in a form like this…I'm mortified!" Sarutobi said as he glared at the 'bodies' of his two sensei standing in front of him.

"This is bad, really bad…that summoning jutsu!" The ANBU captain said gaining the question of who the men were from his subordinate.

"Please prepare yourselves…Shodai-sama, Nidaime-sama!"

"Yes…the black haired guy is the Shodai Hokage, the one who built and founded Konohagakure no Sato…and the white haired one is the Nidaime Hokage, his brother. Both have been praised as the greatest Shinobi of their time, and they are the ones who built Konoha to what it is today." The ANBU explained as Sandaime glared at the atrocities in front of him.

"Edo Tensei, eh?" Nidaime said to his brother. "So this kid summoned us with a kinjutsu…what a guy." Orochimaru then cast the coffins aside so he could finish up the jutsu.

"If that is the case, Saru, we must fight you."

"Let's stop the chitchat, old men…and get this started." Orochimaru said as he approached the revived Hokage with charmed kunai.

"I see that in all periods, there is war." Nidaime said, speaking his thoughts out loud.

"But you like war, don't you…"

"Mocking the dead like that! Nothing good comes out of trifling with time!" Sandaime said as a very dark cloud moved over Konoha; blocking out the sun and making it as dark as night.

"Now, let's begin." He said while approaching his summons. "But before that, I need those two to return to their true forms." Moving his hands forward they sunk into the heads of the Hokage, leaving the charmed kunai inside of them he retracted his hands and let the jutsu finish itself. The bodies of the Hokages began to steam as the dirt and dust that had made up their bodies turned into real flesh and blood, Shodai and Nidaime had been reborn with one desire…to kill Sarutobi!

"Life has returned to their bodies!" The ANBU said, knowing that his subordinate would ask something about the jutsu he decided to explain it a bit. "Edo Tensei…it's a kinjutsu used to summon the dead. Normally a summoning uses the blood of the one summoning it to work. But this jutsu, I have heard that it requires…a live human sacrifice to tie the dead's soul to this world." The other ANBU were shocked at this revelation, that Orochimaru had used his own followers for sacrifices.

Upon seeing the life flow through his sensei again Sandaime was overwhelmed with sadness upon the fact that it had to be in this way, revived only to fight with him. "You two look a lot more like you used to look now." He said as tears formed in his eyes.

"Do you know the sense of satisfaction and joy gained by hurting the one I used to call sensei? I specifically designed this scenario to let you suffer that sort of happiness…so I hope you enjoy it." Orochimaru said as he made a hand sign to command the revived Hokage to attack.

"It's time Brother." Nidaime said as they both stumbled forward towards their commanded enemy. As soon as they stepped over the coffin tops they burst out into a run towards Sarutobi. Shodai went for the straight path while his younger brother ran to the top of the arcing roof to get a better attacking position.

"Hokage-sama!! They may look like them…but they are not the true Shodai-sama and Nidaime-sama!"

"I know that!" Sandaime yelled in response to the ANBU as Shodai let fly the first attack, with a spinning kick he was on Sarutobi. But as quickly as it had been thrown it was blocked by the recent Hokage. Flipping him back Sarutobi forced him to back off for a second by sweeping his legs so he fell backwards a good distance away. Just as he did this Nidaime flew over his head and engaged him in taijutsu. Spinning off his landing foot the white haired Hokage reached out with a punch at his student only to find it easily blocked, another punch and a multitude of taijutsu combos were found to also be dodged and blocked by Sandaime. Dodging under a jumping kick he grabbed onto Nidaime's legs and swung him like a sack of potatoes, letting go so he went flying back to where the other resurrected Hokage stood. Not wasting anytime he quickly made hand signs stopping on Tiger. "Katon: Fire Dragon Flame Missile!" He said as he breathed in a huge breath and let fly a massive jet of superheated fire at his opponents. Blowing harder the fire actually turned white from the amount of heat and chakra coming from it.

Much to Sandaime's dismay the fire started to smoke off of where its target was supposed to be. "Suiton: Water Wall!" Could be heard through the roar of the fire, as a huge wall of water sprouted in front of the fire. Nidaime was spitting out a stream of water that was effectively nullifying the fire stream coming at him. Sarutobi stopped the fire, seeing as how it was just being stopped and looked on in awe.

"Amazing, he used a high level Suiton jutsu with no water source nearby!" The ANBU members said.

The vortex of water that surrounded Shodai and Nidaime disappeared into the air as Orochimaru took on a very odd look on his face. "It's to be expected from a previous Hokage."

With another hand sign Nidaime prepared to go on the offensive jutsu-wise. "Suiton: Water Wave!" Water particles suddenly began to form around him in another vortex as the water from the air around them was sucked into the funnel, when enough was extracted from the air it burst out with a yell from the Hokage. The water took on the shape of a huge wave then sped towards Sandaime.

Desperately doing a hand sign, Sandaime came up with a jutsu to help it this situation. "Doton: Earth Wall!" He then seemed to throw up a line of mud that almost instantly erupted into a huge 50 foot wall of stone. Just in time the wall solidified as the wave slammed into it, the water was split by the wall leaving Sandaime safe behind it, but because of the field the water couldn't go anywhere so it started to fill up the purple box. With a big leap Sarutobi jumped up to the top of the wall and looked down at his two opponents.

Landing on top of the newly formed lake on a roof Shodai took off towards Sandaime in an odd ice skating looking way of running. Jumping down from atop the earth wall Sarutobi began to fire shot after shot of Flame Missiles, but they seemed to be easily dodged and blocked by his sensei that was getting ever closer. With a high jump Shodai launched a hard flying drop kick that Sandaime only barely blocked with his armored bracer. But using the fighting environment to his advantage was a thing Shodai was deadly with, kicking up a splash of water at Sandaime's face he got the opening he was looking for. The next kick landed perfectly on the old man's jaw making him stumble back and into a hard right punch. But then Shodai came around with a very hard left hook that caught Sarutobi square in the jaw, and following it up quickly with a kick to the side that send him skipping across the water.

Coming to a halt Sandaime was laying at the water's surface feeling the pain in his jaw and ribs. Getting up slowly he looked at Shodai harshly as he saw him in a taijutsu stance, ready to attack. "It seems that your power hasn't waned one bit…" Suddenly bubbles started to come from the water behind him, looking around quickly he saw no sign of Nidaime. It was then that four tendrils of water burst from the lake and grabbed onto Sarutobi and dragged him down below the water's surface. Sinking down while in a headlock by Nidaime Sandaime was quickly thinking. 'Fighting the both of you at once is starting to get tough to deal with…'

Meanwhile Orochimaru was watching from a bubble he had made with his chakra as to not get wet. He smirked as he saw what was going on. Sarutobi then burst from the water and scaled the side of the earth wall quickly like a monkey. But when he got to the top he was almost instantly shot down by several water missiles that pierced through the rock and caused about half of the wall to come tumbling down. Falling down with the rocks Sarutobi managed to land correctly and misses getting hit by the rocks, but he then noticed that the water was all gone and standing in front of him was Shodai with a hand sign being shown.

Then the sound of cracking tile catches Sandaime's attention, looking down he sees one of the tiles break and a stem poke through it. 'Crap!' The Hokage thinks as the stem pops up further into a gigantic tree limb. Jumping back he sees that several of these trees have started to grow around Shodai. "This isn't good…this is the Kekkei Genkai that Shodai-sensei can use!" Sandaime said as he bit his thumb, causing blood to trickle out of it.

With the trees sprouting out fast and getting bigger Shodai finishes his seals and yells out. "Mokuton Hijutsu: Deep Forest Creation!!" With that the trees began to explode from the tiles as a forest was being created inside the field. Dodging backwards Sandaime is forced to jump from limb to limb of the growing trees that are reaching out to grab him as the get denser. Jumping and sliding down the newly formed branches he goes higher as the earth wall erupts with more trees hunting for him. With a yell from Shodai the trees finally catch Sandaime, vines and small limbs snake out and wrap themselves around his legs, then they grab onto his torso leaving only his right arm exposed and free.

"His chakra was converted into a source of life! Truly amazing…this must be the legendary Mokuton jutsu of Shodai…the one he used to create the forests around Konoha, bring about the end of the wars, and create the majority of the village with!"

Slowly coming from where he had been watching Orochimaru stood next to Shodai as Nidaime walked up as well. "It would seem that you've finally been caught Sensei." He said as Sarutobi struggled to try and free himself.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Konoha Senpu!!!" Gai yelled as he whirled around in a spinning vortex of chakra as he planted bone shattering kicks on the Oto Nin that surrounded him when he did the move. It was absolute chaos inside the stadium, dead bodies of the Oto and Suna invaders everywhere. The casualties for Konoha were extremely minimal, but that is the after effect of the training that Konoha Shinobi went through. A testament to the strength of the village, and the will to protect it that every Shinobi had.

Kakashi had been killing enemies left and right in attempts to keep the area that the genin were asleep in safe from harm. He had even debated waking up a couple of them to assist him in the battle but had decided against it. Ino would be useless in a situation such as this, Chouji was far too destructive on a large scale to be of help in the enclosed environment, he didn't know Sasame's abilities, and he knew that Arashi, Naruto, and Hiashi would absolutely kill him if anything happened to Hinata.

But despite his warnings Gai had decided that this could be an excellent battle experience for Lee and woke him up. When Lee opened his eyes he saw the bodies everywhere and looked questioningly at his sensei. "Lee it's time you demonstrated how devastating your power of youth can be!"

"Y-You mean I actually get to go into battle!?"

Gai just struck the nice-guy-pose and let his teeth shine. "Yeah Lee, plus you can take them off because this is to protect your village!" Lee's eyes began to widen and water as he hears this news.

"This must be a very serious matter for me to be able to do that! YOSH!!" He reached down and removed his leg weights. "That feels much better Sensei!" Turning and spotting a Suna Chunin he let the weights fly into the man's skull, crushing it with the nearly 400 pounds landing on it. "Let us go Gai-sensei…Let the power of Youth EXPLODE!!" Lee said enthusiastically, and in a flash of green he was gone and suddenly 4 Oto Nin were laying on the ground dead with massive dents in their chests over their hearts.

Kakashi simple shook his head as he planted a kunai in an enemy's eye and twisted it up into his brain. "Gai, do you really think that we needed Lee to help? We could have handled this on our own."

"Yeah, but I hardly think its fair that almost your whole team is out hunting the Suna genin while mine slept. Plus I think it's about time some other villages learned to fear the Second Green Beast of Konoha!" Gai replied as he sent another Oto Nin flying into a pillar that he seemed to just wrap around unnaturally.

"By Kami! You've given him that ridiculous nickname you came up with for yourself!?! Just because for some reason you think coming up with nicknames can be counted as a contest doesn't mean that you can push them on your students!" Kakashi argued while shuddering as he remembered the day Gai had come up with that nickname to 'counter' his of Copy Ninja.

"I didn't force it on him…he asked me if he use! I consider it an honor!" Gai said somewhat offended that his eternal rival would think he would push a nickname on his student. Looking over he saw another blur of green as it sliced through several Oto Nin using a kunai. "Wow, look at him go! We might even be done here quick enough to help outside the stadium!"

"I seriously doubt that…you know that plan." Kakashi said as he oddly enough seemed compelled to come up with Shinobi nicknames for his students. He instantly had one for Naruto but it would have to wait till he found out a few things first and secondly somehow managed to learn That jutsu.

Suddenly there was a massive explosion on the arena floor after Gai and Kakashi heard one of the things that they didn't want to hear come from Lee's mouth. "Primary Lotus!!!" Both of them looked over the edge of the arena to see a groggy looking Lee looking up at them smiling while a lot of dust covered the victim of his attack. When the dust cleared both of them were very surprised to see that it was one of the very powerful Oto Jonin lying in a crater on the ground with what looked like a snapped neck.. Lee then jumped up to where his sensei was standing with a slack-jawed look on his face.

"Lee! That move is FORBIDDEN!! I thought I told you about that!" Gai screamed as Lee stumbled and sat down in the seat nearest him.

"I'm sorry Gai-sensei, but I did it to protect the life of someone precious to me. I didn't break the rules…" Gai looked at him like he was crazy, he was also trying to figure out who it could have been. "…I did it to protect my own life!"

Gai and Kakashi both fell to the ground after hearing his statement. "I didn't mean yourself when I said that!!!" Gai said as he knocked his student hard over the head effectively knocking him out. "Whoops, didn't mean to do that." Kakashi simply sweat-dropped at his remark. "Oh well, he would have been out of it anyway after using that move." Suddenly the whole arena was shook by some force coming from where Sandaime was fighting Orochimaru. Looking up Gai and Kakashi both saw a multitude of trees sprout from inside the purple field and chase after their leader.

Kakashi then saw who was casting the jutsu and who was standing next to him when he saw Sandaime get captured by the twisting trees. "I-Impossible! Shodai-sama and Nidaime-sama!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sandaime currently was almost entirely encased in the wood of the newly formed trees surrounding him. But he was desperately trying to reach out to the nearest branch, if he could only get his blood to touch it! It was then that he managed to get a hold of the branch as Orochimaru was walking closer so as to gloat about his victory in the fight so far. "Summoning! Monkey God King Enma!" A shot of chakra ran down the branch of the tree he touched and burst into a cloud of smoke as the summoning was completed. Orochimaru only could scowl at this new development.

The smoke began to clear and revealed a rather large white ape. He was wearing a black Shinobi outfit with a tiger striped vest that had fur along the arm holes, a Konoha head band, and a fishnet armor that looked the same as Sandaime's. "A troublesome thing has appeared." Orochimaru said to himself. "The elder monkey…Enma."

Hoping down to a lower branch Enma proceeded to stare down Orochimaru. "Hm, Orochimaru…I figured this would happen. You must feel pathetic Sarutobi, you should have killed him all those years ago when we found Tenzo."

"I'm going to do that now!"

"It's too late for that." The huge ape said with a pained look on his face.

"Please, Enma…turn into the Diamond Pole!" Sarutobi said, causing Orochimaru to get concerned a bit.

"Kill them both!" He said to Shodai and Nidaime. "Don't let it transform!" With that the reanimated Hokages rushed off to do Orochimaru's bidding.

"All right!" Enma said as he pulled a fisted arm back in preparations for the two quickly coming his way. Nidaime was the first to get there but was quickly dispatched with a hammer strike that sent him crashing down through the thick tree branch he was on and coming to a stop several feet below in a crumpled pile. Looking up and behind him Enma managed to block and incoming kick from Shodai, shifting his weight Enma met Shodai's face with his fist; sending him flying backwards and making him land much higher up and away from him. Jumping up onto a broken branch Enma took on an unusual stance. "Henge!" A puff of smoke replaced his body and when it cleared away it revealed a rather large pole.

From the smoke a large golden tipped black pole shot out and ripped through the tree holding Sandaime, turning around in midair it whirled back around and cut off the remaining tree bits holding Sarutobi captive. "Okay!" Sarutobi said as he grabbed the huge pole and landed in a fighting pose awaiting an attack from Orochimaru.

"Amazing! I'm waited all my life to see a fight like this…a Hokage-level battle!" The ANBU captain remarked in awe of the 'show' that was being put on in front of him.

"Good…things are finally getting interesting." Orochimaru said as he pushed into his stomach causing some odd gurgling to come from inside of him. Looking up and opening his mouth wide, his tongue and a snake came out of it. But when the snake opened its mouth a sword came out and fell into Orochimaru's hand who simply smirked at his sensei.

'The sword of Kusanagi?' Sarutobi thought as he saw the long sword come out of the snake's mouth. It looked like a more or less normal sword, a basic guard, a straight double bladed edge, and a cloth wrapped hilt. The only thing that could identify it as special was the emblem in the guard that matched the emblem on Orochimaru's earrings. It was the legendary sword of Kusanagi, the sword that could cut through almost anything and had almost no equals. Orochimaru retracted the snake back inside him as he brought the sword around to point directly at Sandaime. "Let's begin Enma!" He said as he twirled the pole around and made is somewhat longer and thinner.

"Even if I'm as hard as diamond…the sword of Kusanagi will still hurt me Sarutobi. We need to end this quickly!" Enma said from in his weapon form.

Sarutobi leapt from the tree to come above Orochimaru, making the pole extend down to the ground with a huge force he aimed to take off Orochimaru's head with it, only to have his student doge to the side and back flip several times to get out of range temporarily. Landing with a flip Sandaime began twirling Enma around his back dramatically as Orochimaru was sizing him up with his sword. With a quick rotation Sarutobi whipped Enma around to only be blocked by the swords flat side, again and again he was blocked. Ducking under a swing Orochimaru got in close as Sarutobi shortened the pole for a closer fight. Pushing Orochimaru back he managed to be able to whip around the pole in attempts to hit him but the Sannin jumped over it but quickly had to flip backwards to dodge the extension coming for his face. He had to continuously block the great pole as it flashed forward to hit him viciously, jumping back over another low shot Orochimaru weaved left and right missing the incoming pole, but then caught a center shot with his sword and used the flat side to hold the pole back.

Orochimaru was about to be overpowered by the Diamond Pole when Sarutobi noticed that Shodai was closing in fast. With a leg sweep the red clad Hokage sent Sandaime for a flip, in the air Sarutobi secretively threw out an exploding tag onto Shodai's leg. After recovering from the sweep he was quickly met with a kick that knocked the pole from his hands by Nidaime. Reacting quickly he placed another tag on the back of his arm just before he got kicked hard in the face. Spinning away Sarutobi was left open for an attack.

"Now's my chance! He's all mine!" Orochimaru yelled as he slammed his sword into the ground and shot forward, slamming a fist into his sensei's face, again and again he pummeled the old man, until he hit him hard with a quick kick to the face; sending him flying back onto his back. The ANBU outside the field were all very concerned for their Hokage now. "Fool, you didn't even create a Kage Bunshin when you charged at me!"

"No…it's not that he forgot to use it…but that he can't!" The ANBU captain said remarking on Orochimaru's words. "Unlike in the past, Sandaime-sama's chakra capacity has waned. Since a Kage Bunshin equally disperses the remaining chakra, so it can waste chakra if used incorrectly. He's…gotten too old!"

Orochimaru slowly walked over to the old man lying on the tiled ground. "Are you okay Sensei?" He said mockingly as he leaned over Sarutobi. Reaching down he grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him up slightly. "You were called the Professor for knowing and using almost all the jutsu that exist in Konoha, right? Now don't let me down, I was hoping for a good fight!" He then started to laugh evilly at his apparent victory over his sensei.

"Hokage-sama! You must get up and protect Konoha!" An ANBU member yelled out when he saw Sandaime just laying in the grips of Orochimaru.

"Fools, it's too late for that." The Sannin said as he continued his laughter.

Meanwhile Enma's weapon form was sitting up against the nearby trees, as an eye appeared in the middle of it that seemed to stare at the Hokage. "Sarutobi, what's wrong? You're not acting like yourself, and your performance is just miserable. Why are you hesitating? You have to put an end to it now!"

Sandaime simply continued to stare at his abomination of a student as a tear rolled down his cheek. "Orochimaru…" Then anger flowed through him as he thought of the things that had happened because of his actions. "…You fool!" Grabbing both arms he pulled them down as he used his legs to bend Orochimaru's legs to make him fall off to the side. Taking this opportunity Enma stretched his arm out from the pole to grasp hardly into Orochimaru's throat.

"Orochimaru, this is it for you. I'll break your neck like I should have done all those years ago!" Squeezing tightly the body of the Sannin suddenly turned brown and erupted in a splash of mud that fell to the ground. From the flow of mud the real Orochimaru popped up, and was left open for attack for a second. Taking this opportunity, Sarutobi leapt up and planted a hard kick right into his student's rib cage, breaking a couple of them and sending him flying back and skidding across the tiles of the roof.

Looking over Sandaime saw that Shodai was just about to jump at him; placing his hand in a simple seal he focused his chakra. "Katsu!" He said as the tag on the revived Hokage light up and exploded, blowing off the leg it was attached to. Turning to his right he found Nidaime about to attack as well, with another focus of chakra he yelled. "Katsu!" And the entire right side of Nidaime blew up as bits of him splattered everywhere. Now both of his opponents were simply laying down with smoking areas where appendages should have been.

Wincing as he rose Orochimaru saw that his summons had been hurt, but he only smirked as he saw what was happening. Sandaime saw his student's expression and gazed over to Nidaime, but what he saw he hadn't expected at all. The pieces that had been blown off were simply returning to the summons's body and reforming the lost limbs. When they had been completely reformed they simply stood back up and stared down Sandaime. 'So it would seem I have to do something about the soul that is bound by Edo Tensei…if that's the case I'll have to use Yondaime's jutsu!' Sandaime thought as the Sun broke through the dark clouds that had covered the sky for some time. Making a simple hand sign Sarutobi glared at Orochimaru as he was getting up slowly. 'Shodai-sama, Nidaime-sama…Please forgive me! I'm going to have to use that jutsu on you!'

But as he was preparing the jutsu Orochimaru broke his attention. "Sensei…you seem out of breath." He said coming to a stop with his hands on the Kusanagi. "You really have aged; I've never seen you in pain like that before." He then once again began laughing at the old man in front of him.

"What's so funny?" Sarutobi asked with his hands still clasped in preparation for the jutsu he needed to use.

"It's pitiful. Even you, the one who has been praised as the God of all Shinobi…cannot beat old age." Orochimaru then reached up and grabbed onto his face and began tearing it off like he had done with the Kazekage face. Sarutobi could only gasp at the atrocity happening in front of him. The face was then completely torn off, revealing a much younger looking face. It was still as pale as Orochimaru had been and had the same eyes, but it wasn't the same face Sarutobi had come to know.

"Who the hell are you!?" Sarutobi yelled out at the person who had been hiding under an Orochimaru mask.

Then in a higher and more feminine voice the person responded to Sandaime's question. "It looks like you cannot comprehend it due to how abrupt it was. It's still me…Orochimaru."

Sarutobi's face was now one of utter shock when he realized what had happened. "Did you…complete that kinjutsu!?!?! You're a terrible and inhuman existence!" Sarutobi yelled out as the changed Orochimaru began to laugh hysterically. "So you use a reincarnation jutsu to steal someone's body and make your mind immortal. That face and body…how many bodies have you gone through?"

Calming down from his hysterical laugher Orochimaru decided to answer the old man's questions in hopes it could lead him towards some valuable information he was looking for. "This is my second."

"So this is why you're after Sasuke-san!?"

"Indeed it is, I had planned to take his body over once he had grown up to my liking. But it seems that there could be another that could peak my interest. So tell me Sarutobi-sensei, why can't my spies get any information on young Arashi-kun?" The snake said questioningly.

"Arashi would never join with you or let you take his body!"

"Ah, but that doesn't answer my question. It seems your hiding something…looks like I was right in thinking Arashi-kun could prove to be more interesting than Sasuke-kun. But I have seen his determination and loyalty to this village and to his friends. Especially the Kyuubi brat and that Hyuuga. I highly doubt he would join me, but the son of the Great Sano and Kenshi Kimura truly must be a spectacular boy." Sandaime was worrying where his thoughts were going. "The son of the man who almost activated the almighty Shekkeigan, it would make it somewhat easier to…" Orochimaru saw the look in Sarutobi's eyes and picked up on the hints being shown there. "My, my…he's already activated it hasn't he? So that's why he was holding back so much when he fought Kabuto!"

Now all Sandaime wanted was to get back to fighting to somehow stop Orochimaru from letting his thoughts go on and possibly figure out about Yondaime, Orochimaru wasn't a dumb man, and given enough time to think he could put 2 and 2 together and he might figure out Arashi's secret. "Are we going to finish this you snake?"

Orochimaru looked at him oddly, trying to figure out why he was acting the way he was. "Now a life is an awful thing to throw away, for you to regret your life…and to curse your fate as you die…" He said as his old voice came back and a new face was created over the young one, his old face. "It is a fate all must face at their deaths, one you will soon face. So there is no need to be too hasty…would you prefer this face better Sarutobi-sensei?" 'He's definitely hiding something about Arashi-san, oh well I'll figure it out after I crush this damn village.' With a quick hand sign Shodai made many more trees grow out of the roof and shot right at Sandaime in hopes of impaling him on the trees. Also all around trees sprung up and filled the purple box with a dense forest of thick trees. A slight trickle of blood could be seen falling onto a branch, seeing this Orochimaru smirked and prodded his sensei. "You shouldn't let your guard down, Sensei. You leave yourself open at times."

Lucky for Sarutobi, Enma had jumped into action when he saw the trees shooting at his friend. In his weapon form he cloned himself several times and made a make-shift cage out of the poles that protected Sandaime from the attack. Enma's eye appeared in front of Sandaime to question what's going on. "What's wrong? You haven't been acting like yourself!"

"Gomen." Sandaime said as he looked up to stare his ex-student down from within the protection of the pole prison. 'Eyes…eyes that held malice and ambition…I ken that he had those within him. I knew, but I pretended not to notice. It was still an era of war, and he was strong. A genius filled with potential. Not unlike Sasuke-san or Arashi-kun, a once-in-a-decade genius. That's why I wanted to believe that you would inherit the Will of Fire, but my optimism and neglect created those situations long ago and this one.' He then came out of his thought s and yelled out to the Sannin. "I should have killed you that day! But I will atone for my mistakes today and rectify them!" Grabbing onto Enma he was already preparing for what was to come. "Enma, let's go!" In a flash the prison was reduced to the one pole.

"It's too late for that Sensei!" Orochimaru yelled out as Shodai and Nidaime zipped away to engage Sarutobi.

Setting the pole down he proceeded to make a hand sign all too familiar to Naruto. "Kage Bunshin Jutsu!" He said as two clones appeared, making the ANBU that were forced to watch wonder what he was thinking along with Orochimaru.

Enma instantly realized what his friend was going to do. "Wait, are you going to…?" The pole then watched as Sandaime went into a long sequence of hand signs. 'That sequence…' The ape thought as he saw Sarutobi finish the sequence.

Behind Sarutobi an odd entity began to form, invisible to all but those who are trapped in it, the shape of the Shinigami came into view of Sandaime. Looking back he saw the entity that was now bonded to his own soul. 'This must be the thing Yondaime was talking about…the Shinigami!' Looking back to Orochimaru he heard him taunt him with his impending death and the destruction of Konoha. "Konoha is my home! The Hokage is the protector of that home, and I shall protect it! He is also the inheritor of Konoha's Will of Fire that passes from one to another. So, you cannot defeat me so easily!"

Meanwhile during Sarutobi's little speech Shodai quickly did a hand sign and said. "Genjutsu, Absolute Darkness Jutsu!" Suddenly everything around Sandaime turned pitch black and made his enemies invisible to his eyes.

"What you said is a joke! You're merely the temporary head of the organization called Konoha…" As he said this Sarutobi began to get pummeled by the other to Hokage that were hiding in the darkness before his eyes. Raising his armored bracer up he managed to deflect most of the incoming blows as he prepared to go on the offensive. "Even the carved stones will eventually weather away and decay."

"Konoha isn't just an organization to me! Many ninja are born here in Konoha ever year and they grow…they live, fight, and die as they protect the village. Even if the people in the village are not blood related. They are all an important family!" He said as he thought about everyone in the village he was fighting to protect, stopping on the image of his grandson.

Orochimaru simply laughed. "Then when I break you and destroy the support of the house called Konoha, then everything will fall!"

"Even if you kill me, the support will not be broken! I am the man who inherited the Will of Fire from Shodai-sama and Nidaime-sama…Konoha's will…Sandaime Hokage! No matter how much you go after Konoha, a new Hokage will inherit my will! The young will grow strong to replace the old and bring about change. People like Naruto-kun and Arashi-kun, people who fight for the village will always stand up against monsters like you! Isn't that right Yondaime-sama? Orochimaru…I will now show you a jutsu that ever you don't know." Making a quick sign he yelled out. "Behold! Fuuinjutsu: Shiki Fuujin!"

Orochimaru watched intently waiting for this new jutsu to be unveiled. Taking his time the Shinigami looked at his situation and slowly raised his left arm, with a thrust of it a necklace of beads wrapped themselves around it as an odd flame pattern started to spread down the arm. 'I must hurry…this darkness is too dangerous!'

"Show me." Orochimaru said as Sandaime was once again forced to dodge and deflect blows coming from the darkness, one managed to knock the real Sarutobi backwards to leave him lying at the Shinigami's feet. "What's wrong? Are you planning on letting the previous Hokage torture you to death now? Please show me this jutsu of yours."

Looking up Sandaime saw the flame pattern slowly make its way down the Shinigami's arm, when it reached the elbow the Shinigami plunged the arm into Sarutobi's soul. This action sent a wave of pain surging though Sarutobi, but it also made it clear that the jutsu was ready. "It made it in time…" In a flash the Bunshin of the Hokage jumped out and quickly latched themselves onto Shodai and Nidaime. Both had been hit hard by counter attacks by still managed to keep a hold on the resurrected Hokage.

"I won't let go!" The clones holding onto the Hokages yelled out. "Now, come forth!" With that the Shinigami reached his hand in further causing an arm to sprout from the stomach of the clones and reach into the bodies of the captured Hokage, latching onto their souls. As soon as this was done the darkness quickly dissipated.

Knowing what had happened Shodai seemed to get some of his personality back. "I am sorry Sarutobi. You have protected Konoha well."

Nidaime also spoke to his student for one last time. "We've caused you a lot of trouble and I'm sorry as well."

Both of their bodies began to turn back into the dust and dirt it was made of as their souls were being pulled out by the Shinigami. Please forgive me, Shodai-sama…Nidaime-sama…" With one final pull both of their souls were fully pulled out by the clones. "…SEAL!!" With that the souls were sucked into the clones and a seal that looked almost exactly like the one on Naruto appeared, leaving two piles of dirt along with the corpses of Zaku and Kin. "You sacrificed your own men! You actually sacrificed your own men's lives!" Sandaime said with tears running down his face as the two clones puffed away into only smoke.

"My men's lives? Stop babbling about something so trivial!"

"Did they not believe in you!?! Come Enma!" The pole zipped into Sarutobi's hand. Leaping down an enraged Sarutobi engaged Orochimaru in a fierce burst of weapon fighting, only to actually knock the Kusanagi out of Orochimaru's hands. Jumping back Enma launched himself out while bringing an arm out so that he could grab on to Orochimaru.

But the pale man saw it coming and countered it by wrapping the Ape up with some of his hidden shadow snakes. Enma fell to the ground unable to move because of the snakes. But because Orochimaru was focused on the pole he missed Sandaime as he ran up and latched onto him by the shoulders. "Its over!!" He said as the Shinigami reached in again and slowly grabbed a hold of Orochimaru's soul.

Feeling this, the Sannin was frantically trying to move or do something but he was planted where he stood. 'What is this feeling? This is bad!!" But with a motion of his hand he actually made the Kusanagi levitate and move itself. Coming up behind Sarutobi he positioned it to strike his Sensei through the back. Enma saw this and began to desperately move to intercept it. "DIE!!" Both the men yelled as Sarutobi began to pull the soul out and the Kusanagi shot towards Sandaime.

Much to the dismay of Orochimaru, Sandaime had done nothing. He had figured that he would jump out of the way to avoid the blade but he did nothing. The only thing that happened was that Enma caught the blade half way through its cut, it was now sticking through Sarutobi but it could still go deeper. "You fool!! Why didn't you dodge it!?"

"I didn't need to, your soul is about half way out by now…you can probably see it…the Shinigami." Looking up Orochimaru saw a huge entity behind his enemy that seemed to have a hold on his soul. Looking down he saw the arm that held onto him, and began to panic on the situation. He might actually be killed here! "I didn't dodge because even if I had I would have died; you see those who use this jutsu pay for it with their lives! This is the jutsu used by Yondaime to save this village, you will die with me and we will spend the rest of eternity battling each other in the Shinigami's stomach!"

"So this is the jutsu that sealed Kyuubi?"

"I will now tear your soul out from your body…then seal it!" Orochimaru was now beginning to freak out; he had almost no control of his body and could see his soul being pulled slowly from his body. Also looking up he had the unpleasant sight of seeing the Shinigami devour Shodai and Nidaime's souls.

'Is that really the…Shinigami?' "Don't screw with me you geezer! I won't let you have it your way!!" He then used what little movement he had left to try and drive the Kusanagi further though him, slowly the blade cut through more of him but it was little actual damage since Enma was holding it in place and making it extremely hard for Orochimaru to move it. With every inch that the blade went deeper it seemed that the more of Orochimaru's soul was pulled back into his body. "Hurry up…and die!"

"I already told you…that you will die too!"

Orochimaru continued to try and push the Kusanagi deeper in him in an attempt to keep his soul in him. "Get your hand off of me, you geezer!!" He yelled, only to get a refusal from his sensei and more of his soul getting pulled out. "It's not moving!" He said as he noticed that the blade completely stopped moving.

"You still do not understand Orochimaru? Konoha is my home, and I am its foundation!"

"That's why I said that I will destroy that foundation!"

"As long as the villagers are fighting to protect those precious to them…the foundation of Konoha cannot be destroyed by you! Do not underestimate a Hokage!" He said pulling hard on his soul and managing to pull out even more.

"This can't be…How are you…you shouldn't have any chakra left!"

"Chakra and ninjutsu aren't the only things that determine strength!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Pull the men back!!" Ibiki Morino yelled as the men under him were getting pushed back by the giant snake. All of a sudden a huge gust of wind blew around them catching Ibiki's attention.

"Summoning! Food Cart Destroyer!" Was heard as a gigantic toad with two huge katanas strapped to its back appeared on top of one of the heads of the snake, killing it. "It's been a while Ibiki-san." The white haired man that appeared on top of the toad said.

"Jiraiya-sama!!"

Jiraiya then stared down the two remaining heads of the huge snake. 'Orochimaru…you teme!' "That's right! Tremble before the might of the toads! It's time you snakes learned your lesson well!" Turning back to Ibiki he looked at him solemnly. "Where is Hokage-sama?"

"He's currently engaging the enemy at the stadium." He reported quickly so as to be as much help as he could be.

'Don't you die old man!'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(**1 hour later**)

"Damn you! You half dead old geezer!" Orochimaru screamed as he felt even more of his soul get pulled out of his body. 'My arms are still being held…I can't use any jutsu. I need to get out of this as soon as I can!'

"I won't let the village fall victim to your ambition!"

"Nobody can stop my ambition! You're going to die here! Or are you saying that an old man like you, Sandaime Hokage…has the power to stop me? Do you really understand the situation right now? The village is being attacked by my men and ninja from Suna. You people…the Konoha ninjas will die, as well the women and children! The destruction of Konoha will succeed!"

Sandaime coughed up some blood but then continued on to smirk. "If you believe that then you really don't know the people of Konoha!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A patrol of Suna Nin were currently going from house to house to look for enemies, the odd thing was that they weren't finding any people at all. With them in the heart of Konoha, they had figured that there would be much more resistance than what they were facing.

Meanwhile inside the stadium Gai had just broken the skull of the last remaining enemy in the arena. Jumping down to where all the other Konoha Shinobi were he took a spot next to Kakashi as they gazed at the small battle between Baki and Genma that was going on below them. Looking up they saw a lone hawk flying over the stadium. "Hm, looks like it's just about time." The taijutsu master said.

"Yeah, I guess it would be a good idea to wake up some of the genin." Moving over Kakashi laid a hand on Hinata and Ino's shoulders and dispelled the genjutsu while Gai did the same for Chouji and simply shook Lee awake. All four of them woke up groggily, looking around they were shocked at the devastation that had happened around them. "Well good morning to you too." The copy ninja said with a smile to his student."

"Anou...Kakashi-sensei, w-what happened here? Where are the o-others?" Hinata said when she noticed that a couple of the genin were missing. Kakashi then told them about the mission that he had sent them on and how they were chasing Gaara and Sasuke. "G-Gaara?? They could be in danger! W-Why didn't you send me?"

"Oh Hinata don't worry so much I'm pretty sure that they'll be fine."

"Pretty sure!?!" Hinata said in a panic. She clearly was worried for her team mated and friends. "Hold on Arashi-kun, I-I'm coming!" She said as she stood up and walked over to the edge of the seating area.

"Hinata they are probably a really long way away…how do you think you can…" Kakashi started to say when he noticed her bite her thumb and go through a hand sign sequence he though she didn't know.

Gathering as much chakra as she could at the moment she thrust her hand out into the open air as she called for help. "Summoning Jutsu!" She said as a gigantic Bald Eagle appeared before them, it was huge. Possible of carrying several people on its back, it was just hovering out over the railing looking at Hinata.

"Hinata-sama, what can I do to help?" The eagle said in a regal voice.

"Elwing-sama, I need to find my friends. They could be in battle somewhere!" She said as she jumped on its back as the bird took off into the sky.

"I think I see a battle about 25 miles out to the west. There's an odd looking creature and a giant toad." The bird said to his rider.

'Naruto-kun…they have to be there!' "Hurry, t-that's where we need to be." The bird then took off at a tremendous speed. Below everyone was in shock, but managed to hear the thing she said when they took off. "Arashi-kun!!" She said as they took off towards the fight.

Kakashi was in a state of utter shock, falling back he landed in one of the empty chairs. "E-Eagles!? S-She has a contract with the eagles!?!?!" Gai was just looking at his rival knowing that in terms of a team he had been beaten hands down. "Damn…how did I get lucky enough to get such an amazing team!" Kakashi said as he once again looked up to see everyone still in a look of shock and another hawk go flying overhead. "So they've finally started?"

A platoon of Suna and Oto Nin were currently running to chase down a single Chunin that they had stumbled upon. It was a complete overkill, 50 men chasing a puny Chunin. But they couldn't find anyone else so it didn't matter. Suddenly a huge gust of wind swept through the alleyway they had been running down as about half of the men fell over dead. Looking up the remaining men were startled to see only five ANBU standing on an bridge over the ally in full battle gear. One of the ANBU, a woman with purple hair, called down to the men. "Those who wish to do harm to the village of Konoha will have to deal with our wrath! All right boys…it's time!" The others nodded and looked at the enemies before them. "Give them nothing! But take from them…everything!!!" She yelled as they blasted forward cleaving heads as they ran. When they came to a stop the entire crowd had been decimated.

On the other side of the village several Suna Jonin had stumbled across Hiashi who was pissed from the invasion of his home village. With a thrust he blasted two away with a strong Juuken blast, turning around he hit another man with a blast to the heart making him fall down dead. The remaining 17 Jonin surrounded him in a large circle preparing to strike. With a smirk Hiashi began to twist violently as chakra burst from him. "Kaiten!" He yelled as his vortex picked up his enemies and flung them away to their deaths. "The Hyuuga is Konoha's strongest clan…remember that!"

Elsewhere a squad of ninja suddenly found themselves unable to move. Looking down they saw several shadow connecting themselves to a grizzly looking man with the same hair as his son. "Konoha's Kagemane shall bring about the darkness for you all." Moving his hand into another sign he smirked at his captured enemies. "Shadow chocking jutsu." He said as the shadow began to move up their bodies like hands and grasp onto their necks making them all scream out their last words.

All over Konoha similar things were happening, the villages Jonin and Chunin had begun the counterattack and were decimating the enemy. The Invasion had failed and Konoha was being protected by the Shinobi's will to protect that precious to them.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"You invasion will ultimately fail, you've underestimated the strength of this village!" Sandaime said as he looked over his situation. "But unfortunately it seems like I don't have the power to drag out all of your soul." He said straining hard to pull as much out as he could, looking down he saw that he had all of his arms out and some of his torso. However, your ambition ends here!!"

Orochimaru was now very worried as to what the old man might do. "It's not over yet! My ambition will never end!"

With a smile Sarutobi responded to his former student. "Then I will hand down my punishment for drowning yourself in jutsu…by taking them all away from you!"

"What!?!" Orochimaru yelled as he felt his soul get pulled even more and saw the Shinigami pull out his Wakizashi. "Are you…NOOOO!! STOP!!!" He screamed as the blade came down on his soul, severing his arms and making Sarutobi jump back.

"SEAL!!" With a flash the seal appeared on Sandaime's stomach as Orochimaru's arms were sealed inside of him.

Orochimaru then looked down at his arms as a horrible pain washed over them, he tried to lift them up but struggled very hard. All of a sudden they began to turn a sickly purple and fall down limp at his sides, causing Orochimaru to scream from the pain throbbing in the arms. He had never been in so much pain before in his life; looking at the man who did it to him he began to scream at him.

"Now you cannot use your arms anymore, and that mean no hand signs for jutsu!" Sarutobi said calmly on his last few breaths. "The destruction of Konoha has failed!!" He said as the Shinigami began drawing in his own soul.

"YOU OLD GEEZER!! Give me back my ARMS!!"

You are a fool Orochimaru. I regret that we cannot die together, my idiot apprentice. Let us meet in the other world."

"You near-dead geezer! How dare you…How dare you take away my jutsu!!" Orochimaru began screaming at the dying Hokage, Sandaime then felt his eyes getting heavy as he began to fall from his feet. With his last sight he saw the image of the screaming Sannin replaced with an image of how his student one was; bringing a smile to his face. As he fell Orochimaru saw this smile and knew he had been defeated.

"Sarutobi…you lived as a true Shinobi and died as such." Enma said with tears in his eyes as he pulled the Kusanagi out of his deceased friend and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

One of the four holding up the field was getting worried when he saw the was Orochimaru was looking. "Orochimaru-sama!!"

"Drop the field…we're getting out of here. The invasion failed…" He said solemnly as the purple field dissipated in a blast. Zipping forward he Subordinates grabbed onto the Snake Sannin and barely escaped the pursuing ANBU.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Are we just going to let them escape?" Gai asked of Kakashi as they watched both Orochimaru's group and Kabuto along with Baki escape in a puff of smoke.

"We have more important things to take care of." He said with a very sad look on his face as he stared up to the forest that stood on top of the building in front of them. When they finally made their way up to the roof most of the strongest of the Shinobi had gathered. Looking down they saw the body of their leader with a smile on his face and a seal on his stomach. They all couldn't believe it…the Hokage had died…

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Holy crap that was really really long!! But to defend myself it's basically my favorite fight and all. But anyway, I hope you all like it. Plus you are lucky I got the 10 reviews I needed to be able to post this. So I'm going to do it again. I'm not going to update until I get at least 10 reviews!**

**But yeah this chapter was crazy long my average is like 7500 words and this one is like 11300!! So yeah next time it's the big fight against Gaara!! I'm going to try and change a couple things but it will be Naruto who does most of the fighting. So REVIEW!**


	18. Shukaku Unleashed!

**Review Reply:**

**Grapfruit.ninja:** it's fine that it's taking you some time for your thing, and I'm glad you liked the chapter.

**Static44: **Really, Gaara fight Yay! But yeah it is a pain to recreate the canon parts, but hey it's fun otherwise I wouldn't be doing it!

**Kazuma Watanabe:** haha, youth you say! That's hilarious, but yeah I sent you a message dealing with the majority of your points.

**Artemis-kibasgirlfriend: **I'm glad you enjoy my fic so much! Keep up with the reviews!

**The16thday:** Yeah he did look pretty ridiculous yelling like that.

**Perverted-Hokage:** Yes, yes I know I'm a genius! Haha

**Sploft: **I will keep up the good work : D

**Harpygirl91:** Yeah it was a bitchin long chapter, I didn't want it to be that long but oh well you can't limit the greatness.

**CrimsonCat101:** You have no idea how lucky your review is, it's the 10th one so now I can update! I thank you for your support, I really don't get why more people don't review. Other stories the same length as this one have like hundreds of reviews but do I…nope, nothing! Well for the Saru/Oro fight I know it was a little long but it's one of my absolute favs so I kinda had too. But it seems like my chapters are getting longer, this one is hella long too! Thanks for the review I'm sure the other reads would thank you too.

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_(Previously)_

"_I don't know what you sand guys are doing…But I'm going to stop you!!!" Sasuke yelled at Gaara as he glared up at the Uchiha._

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Glaring up Gaara saw the one person he desired to kill above all else, the person that had actually injured him, the only person he has fought so far that could even be called close to even with him. The bloodlust of Shukaku had been rising ever since he first saw Sasuke stop Kankuro with a pebble. It was almost intolerable now, Gaara now didn't just want Sasuke's blood…he needed it. The only visible evidence of this internal struggle going on within Gaara was a crack on the sand armor of the right side of his face.

"Also…I'm going to determine exactly what you are." Sasuke said as he remembered the terrifying eye that he saw inside Gaara's sand shell during their match. After those words were spoken by the Uchiha, Gaara bent over and grabbed his head in pain once more.

With a hand still holding onto his head Gaara looked back up at Sasuke with a new level of bloodlust coming from his gaze, while more and more of his sand armor began to crack. "You are strong…You are called Uchiha…You have friends…You have goals. You are similar to me." As he was saying this he began to pulsate chakra, and visibly becoming more unstable. "By killing you, I can exist in this world as the one who erased your existence!! I'll be able to fell alive!!" Now Gaara looked absolutely insane, with a murderous smile on his face he suddenly got calm for a second, pulling his hand down from his face he spoke again. "You are my…" With another pulse he fell to his knees yelling in pain. The sand on his back then began to transform slightly, letting off loud cracking noises it bean to form around Gaara's right arm and face. "You're…MY…PREY!!!" He said while thrashing about as the sand began to form.

Temari had been watching the recent events and was terrified, she didn't even want to see this terror again.

The sand had now formed completely into a huge clawed arm and had formed what looked like the face of a Tanuki on the right side of Gaara's face. Sasuke could only look on in horror as he watched the transformation happening in front of him. Slowly, Gaara opened the eye that now was on the Tanuki side. "Now…let me feel!" The eye opened to reveal the same eye that Sasuke had seen during his match.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The group of pursuing genin was now racing through the tree tops as fast as Sakura could go. Naruto had a look of extreme focus on his face as he was feeling out his surroundings as they got closer and closer to Sasuke. Suddenly he felt a strong pulse of chakra come from where they were headed. "**Hmm, interesting…this one could prove to be a challenge."** A voice said in Naruto's head that startled him momentarily.

He then remembered that he could communicate with Kyuubi now, this had just been the first time that it had happened. 'Kyuubi?'

"**Yeah, it's me Kit. Did you feel anything strange about that chakra pulse a couple seconds ago?"**

'Well yeah it felt odd, like your chakra feels sometimes. Why do you know anything about it?'

"**Actually you're pretty close in your guess. But from what I felt I would say that it's Shukaku."** She felt the curious nature of Naruto about to come forth so she decided to answer before he could ask. **"Shukaku is one of the Biju like myself, he's the one-tailed while I'm the nine-tailed. Basically he's the weakest one."**

'Then why would he be a challenge?'

"**Well despite having me in here you most likely wouldn't stand a chance against Shukaku's container. You saw how he acts, full of bloodlust and the desire to kill. That's because Shukaku affects who he's sealed inside and drives them mad, making them an insane murderous killer."**

Just as Naruto was about to question Kyuubi some more his thoughts were interrupted by Arashi. "Hey Naruto, did you feel that?" He said in a whispered voice as not to alert Sakura to any concern.

"Yeah, but whatever it is it's way more than Sasuke can handle. But knowing him he'll try to do it anyway. We need to hurry!" Naruto said back in a hushed voice as they sped up a little bit and saw that Sakura was keeping up so they figured that it was an okay pace to set.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"YOU ARE MY PREY!!!" Gaara screamed as he leapt at the frozen Uchiha, slamming his clawed sand appendage into the tree where Sasuke was standing. Amazingly Sasuke managed to dodge the claw at the last second and jump away to safety with his Sharingan blazing. The tree wasn't as lucky, the entirety of the area Gaara hit had basically exploded on impact, the power behind the attack was immense enough to rip the tree to shreds.

A couple trees away Sasuke was sitting on a branch out of view out of breath and amazed at the destructive force of just a swing of his arm. All of a sudden his shoulder stated to hurt, reaching up he griped his mark in pain as it began to flare up. But lucky for him the seal Kakashi used held up to it and made it go back and stop trying to activate. 'This looks like it won't end by the time you come to back me up Shino.' Sasuke thought as he reflected on the seriousness of the situation he had found himself in.

Bringing himself out of his thoughts Sasuke was forced to dodge another claw slash that took out the tree he was hiding in. "What IS he?" He said aloud as he shot back to another tree as Gaara continued to look for him.

"What's wrong Uchiha!? Are you afraid of me?" Gaara yelled tauntingly as his sister was crouched down terrified as she thought of what might happen if Gaara continued to progress with the possession. "Are you afraid of my existence!? Come out Sasuke Uchiha!!" Sasuke was now hiding in another tree as he heard Gaara taunting him like that, as much as he hated feeling incapable of doing anything he knew he couldn't do much against a person like him. Plus he was starting to get freaked out by the way he was talking. "You are my PREY!!"

"Kuso." Sasuke said under his breath as he knew what hew needed to do. In a blink of the eye Sasuke had shot out from behind the tree and was closing in on Gaara.

"There you are!" He yelled as he thrust his clawed arm at the Uchiha, the arm shot forward and nailed Sasuke directly in the torso. He then went spiraling away from Gaara who had a pleased look on his face that then turned to anger as he saw what happened next. As quickly as he had shot out the falling body of Sasuke poofed into a log with a huge gash in it.

Whipping his head around Gaara found his prey in the air behind him just as he flung several kunai at the Suna genin. Protecting himself with his clawed arm he allowed the kunai to hit him. Sasuke was very confused at this action, but was then worried as the kunai sunk into the arm like quicksand. He landed and took off in a high leap to get away and regroup. "Here, you can have them back!" Gaara yelled as he flung the kunai back, but with the power of the arm the kunai traveled at speeds Sasuke had never seen before. They were going so fast that the friction with the air was actually heating them up so that they were now flaming red! The flaming molten kunai shot a Sasuke and just as it struck him he vanished from sight. "A Bunshin, eh?"

The real Sasuke was once again hiding behind a tree trunk when he saw his Bunshin get demolished the way it had. "Damn you!"

Gaara was now searching for Sasuke after the Bunshin was destroyed. "Sasuke Uchiha!! Why aren't you coming at me!?" He screamed when suddenly he was hit with another wave of pain from his head. "Why do you run away!? Why do they all run away?!" He yelled as he then seemed to zone out momentarily as he remembered the pain and hate that was ever present in his childhood. With a scream of bloodlust he came out of his thoughts and began searching for Sasuke once again. "I won't let you…I won't let you run from me!!" He screamed as he whipped the clawed arm through the two nearby tree, bringing them down. Pushing off with the arm he propelled himself forward while demolishing anything that was in his path. Once he came to a stop the demon container began to look around maniacally for any sign of the Uchiha.

"Kuso! Where's he getting that power? Just what is he?" Sasuke said as he was thinking of a way to deal with his deranged opponent.

Hearing him speak Gaara turned around to look at the tree where he was hiding. "What's wrong Sasuke Uchiha!? Are you afraid of ME!?! Has your hate and killing intent hid itself away from the fear? Is your existence worth that little to you? Fight with me…and confirm it." Gaara rambled out not knowing what a chord it had struck with Sasuke.

Hearing those words Sasuke was taken back to that horrible day all those years ago, the day his life changed forever. '"Foolish little brother…you're hate's not strong enough…you're not strong enough…." That's what he said, I'll prove him wrong! I'll pour all of my hate into this fight so I can move on and kill you…Itachi-teme!!!' Sasuke screamed out in his mind as he stood up with determination in his eyes. Going through familiar hand signs for him he held out his left arm as it erupted in crackly lightning. "He kept me alive…only me, I always wondered why…but now I know, it was to escape the guilt of killing off everyone. But he should have killed me, because now my whole existence is to destroy him, so I have no choice but to destroy this freak and see if my will to exist it greater than his!!"

Seeing the crackling lightning and hearing the jutsu Gaara stared intently at the tree it was coming from as Sasuke stepped out from behind it in an arrogant fashion. But Gaara couldn't be more pleased, he had finally drawn him out and could slaughter him and bathe in his blood. "Let's have some fun, Sasuke Uchiha!!"

"I'm going to finish this NOW!!" With a push of his arm Gaara was the first to attack, shooting at Sasuke he had his blood lusting look on his face and his clawed arm pulled back, ready to slash him to pieces. Seeing him incoming enemy Sasuke leapt forward with the Sharingan blazing and his crackling arm ready to strike.

As the two closed in on each other Temari could only watch in horror. What she saw was what she hadn't expected. On contact Sasuke's Chidori simply ripped straight through Gaara's arm, spraying sand everywhere and causing Gaara to back into a tree as he screamed in the worst pain he had ever felt. "Gaara!!" She yelled out as her gaze drifted back to her brother's enemy who looked like the attack he had just used was nothing. Sasuke was staring at the crumpled heap that was Gaara, when the collapsed Suna Nin began to laugh hysterically and simply got up while griping his shoulder connected to the sand arm... "No way! He countered Gaara's attack in that form and hurt hi? No one has ever hurt Gaara…but he's done it twice!" Temari remarked in awe.

Still staring down his opponent Sasuke was beginning to worry slightly. "I see…I get it!" Gaara exclaimed as Sasuke looked a little confused. "I just figured out why this is so much fun. This pain…to destroy the guy who's able to hurt me, and erase his existence from this earth! It gives me the most intense feeling of being alive!" Temari was now very concerned; she was currently praying to Kami that Gaara wouldn't progress further. But her fears were realized the next second. "MORE!! I want more!" He yelled as his arm reformed and also a gigantic spiked tail of sand formed behind him.

'What the hell IS he!?' The Uchiha thought as he watched the sand form around his opponent. With a smile Gaara latched onto the branch he was currently on and pulled himself against it, stretching his arm like a slingshot. With the release of his sand appendages he shot out at Sasuke as a speed he hadn't seen the sand user at before. 'He's much faster that before!' He thought as he quickly activated his Sharingan to predict the attack. Jumping up he barely managed to dodge the incoming attack that ripped through the tree Sasuke had been standing on. After passing by Gaara starched his arm out to grab onto many branches as he slowed himself down and used the momentum to initiate another slingshot like take off. 'Kuso, all I can do right now is dodge! If I didn't have these eyes…I'd be dead a long time ago!' Gaara was now closing in fast as Sasuke brought his hands up to perform a Katon jutsu. 'I can't use Chidori again…' With a large breath Sasuke launched his counter attack. "Katon: Goukakyuu jutsu!"

The huge blast of flames shot out of Sasuke's mouth aimed directly at the incoming enemy. But just as they were about to make contact Gaara used his arm and tail to create a sphere around him as he simply sailed through the flames ready to continue with his assault. "Kuso! My fire isn't hot enough to do anything against his sand!!"

"DIE!!" Gaara screamed as he slammed his arm into a defensive Sasuke who then flew back, crashing through several tree limbs and coming to a halt n the trunk of a tree after he made a human sized crater in the side of it.

'DAMN!! That hurt my spine like crazy!! I guess it has to be Chidori…' He though once he stumbled to his feet. '…but can I do it a third time?' He though as he remembered Kakashi's warning against using it more than twice. _"If you try to use Chidori a third time at best you'll lose all of your chakra, at worst…you die!"_ Kakashi's voice rang out in his head. But he knew he had no other choice, he had to risk it even if It acted up…

"What's wrong? Is this all your existence means to you!?! I'll be clear, you are weak! You're soft because your hate…is weak." Sasuke was instantly reminded of that day as a new burning desire to destroy Gaara began to surface. "The power of hate is the power of killing intent, and that power is the power of revenge. You're hate is weaker than mine!!"

Not being able to take his taunting any longer Sasuke spoke up, softly at first. "Shut up."

"Do you understand the meaning of this?"

"SHUT UP!!"

"It means that you're weaker than me you foolish little boy!!"

Those last words pushed Sasuke over the edge. "I SAID SHUT UP!!!!" Concentrating his chakra to his hand he wanted nothing more than to shove a Chidori down the sand freak's throat to silence him forever. To his surprise lightning began to shot out of his palm in the distinctive sound that signified the Chidori. "AHHH!!!" Sasuke yelled as he shot at the incoming Gaara. But just as he was getting close he felt a horrible pain shoot through his arm as the power coming from his attack was cut in about half. 'I need more POWER!!!' Sasuke screamed in his head as the attacks connected in an eruption of sand and lightning.

Both attackers landed on a branch facing away from each other. Neither one seemed to have been hit by the attacks, until the entire sand arm of Gaara's turned back into regular sand and fell to the ground. Back with Sasuke the Chidori was amazingly back at full power. 'Where did this power come from?' Sasuke thought as the Chidori dispersed leaving him looking at his hand. To his surprise and horror there were black flames marks covering it, moving his gave he saw that the marks continued up his arm. In truth they were pretty much covering the entire left side of his body. It was a new sense of power that the Curse Mark had given him for a second…and for that second Sasuke had liked it.

Groaning in pain Gaara did the only thing he could right then, he went for more power. As quickly as the right arm had fell to the ground the sand morphed around to create another clawed arm on his left arm. Looking back Sasuke saw the transformation and knew he was almost completely out of chakra, certainly not enough to fight against this…this monster! Not being able to stand anymore Sasuke only managed to fall down on his face on the branch he was standing on. "Damn! This curse mark used up all of my chakra!" He said as he reached his hand around to feel where the mark originated from, only to find massive waves of pain coursing through his body as soon as he made contact with the mark. "Shit, my body won't move!" He said as he saw Gaara looking at him oddly.

Gaara turned to see a defenseless Sasuke lying down in pain. With a bloodthirsty smile he leapt at the downed Uchiha, speeding closer he readied his attack. "DIE UCHIHA!!!"

But just as he was about to slash Sasuke to ribbons he was surprised to be met with massive kick to the face from a blur in orange and a powerful punch to the gut from a black and green blur. Flying back Gaara managed to crash through a tree and come to a sliding halt on a large branch when he clawed on with his arm. Snapping his head up he looked to see the new come enemies that had stopped his fun; the Naruto kid who had beat the Hyuuga earlier and that Himura. 'Oh, these two could be fun. They are strong…most likely stronger than the Uchiha. They both held back in their matches, I wonder how strong they really are!' Gaara then started to laugh softly as he anticipated the battle to come.

Landing on the branch the team had finally caught up. "Sasuke-kun!" Sakura yelled to her downed obsession when she landed next to him.

Looking up Sasuke saw what had happened and who was now standing in front of him. "N-Naruto? Arashi?" He was answered by silence because the two friends were currently staring down the half transformed guy in front of them.

'It seems we were a bit late.' Pakkun thought to himself as he inspected Sasuke.

'So that's Shukaku coming out. This could get bad.' Naruto thought to himself as he looked back to see Sasuke out of commission and with those weird marks on him again.

Sasuke tried to move through the pain in order to get a better view of what was going on but he was only met with pain from his mark. Sakura being the closest to him saw the marks and knew what had happened. She was very concerned and wished that she had been faster so they could have gotten there earlier. "Sasuke-kun! Don't try to get up too hard." She said as Sasuke's face was contorted in pain as he was slowly raising himself up. 'Kakashi-sensei told me that that mark wasn't a problem anymore. What happened to you Sasuke-kun?'

Arashi was currently staring down the boy in front of him. Looking in his eyes he distinctly saw a look that he had seen and known several times too much for his tastes. The looks of despair and loneliness, the look that he had before he met Naruto, but most of all the look Naruto had whenever he was around the villagers when they were younger and they treated them badly. But looking into Gaara's eyes he couldn't help but see a reflection of what Naruto might have turned out like had they never met or if he had continued on his path of loneliness. What he might have been similar too, Arashi knew that Naruto and Gaara were extremely similar because of the demons they held. Then it hit him, Arashi didn't want to fight this boy, he wanted to help him…but if it came down to it he would protect his friends, even if one was an incredible arrogant ass, and the other a hopeless fangirl.

Naruto was slightly put off by Gaara's form but after learning from Kyuubi that this guy was like him he wanted to beat the sense into him. Show him the strength that comes from protecting those close to you instead of fighting for only yourself like he does. Looking over at Arashi he could see that he was of like mind, but there was an odd look of sympathy coming from him also that he couldn't place. 'Why would Arashi be sympathetic to this guy?'

He hadn't been looking for an answer but his furry room mate decided to speak up. **"Could it be possible that he found out about me and is looking at the Shukaku boy as a representation of who you could have turned out to be if you two had never met?"** Upon hearing that suggestion Naruto's face went as white as a Hyuuga's. Having Arashi, Sasame, or Hinata find out about Kyuubi was his absolute biggest fear. But above all else he feared if Arashi found out, he considered Arashi his brother and couldn't bear the thoughts of him turning on him and hating him because of Kyuubi. Naruto was ripped out of his thoughts by some argument between Pakkun and Sakura, then a questioning look from Arashi.

"Are you okay Naruto?" Arashi asked.

But before Naruto could answer Gaara decided to talk to the two. "You…" He began staring at Naruto. "You're that guy I tried to kill." Naruto suddenly froze solid as he remembered the terror he had felt when he and Shikamaru had stopped Gaara from killing Lee in the hospital. _"I fight for only myself, I love only myself. As long as there are people to kill in this world, I will know I exist." _Naruto heard the boy's words in his head again, thinking on the matter at hand he knew one thing…they needed to get out of there. They had completed their mission and caught up with Sasuke, now they had to flee or Sakura and Sasuke could end up dead! "Sakura, get Sasuke we need to get out of here!!"

Naruto screamed to the pink haired girl. But it was too late; Gaara was already past Naruto who had been the closest to the Suna Nin. Gaara was on course to tear Sakura and Sasuke apart before taking on Naruto and Arashi; after all he still had the desire for Uchiha blood. Seeing this Arashi knew he had to do something, he wasn't going to stand by and let his friends get slaughtered. But he had taken up a position that was just about even with Sakura and Sasuke but a bit away. He couldn't make it in time with his weights and state now. 'Yondaime I need chakra NOW!!!' He screamed in his head as the whole world seemed to be going super slow.

To Sasuke this whole situation had gone from bad to horrible, Gaara was charging them and had gotten past Naruto. All that was left between him and his death was the puny Haruno girl. He then felt Arashi's chakra spike next to him, looking over he saw something he would never forget as long as he lived. Arashi was covered in a massive amount of yellow chakra, but that wasn't what grabbed his attention. It was his eyes…they were blazing brightly with both of them having a two tomed Sharingan in them. 'WHAT THE HELL!?!?' Sasuke screamed in his head as everything went black for him.

Arashi had unknowingly activated his Sharingan so he could see everything in slow-motion, feeling Yondaime's chakra explode in him he only had over thing left to do in order to save the others. "KAI!" He yelled as the genjutsu on his bracers was dropped, this was the first time Arashi had ever dropped it in a battle situation, not even in training. He felt as light as a feather and could feel the speed he was going to use. Coaching down he took off as Gaara got closer to the others by the millisecond. The tree he was on seemed to explode from the force of him taking off at full speed.

To Naruto everything was going horrible and seemed to be going super slow. It was then that he saw Arashi release his bracers, having never seen it before he was amazed to see the force of the take off, but when he was moving he could barely see the blur. He was going maybe a little faster than Lee had after opening the 5th gate!

Sakura saw Gaara closing in fast and did the only thing she could think of, then got up and pulled out a kunai, ready to die protecting Sasuke. The look in her eyes shot at Gaara who only seemed to get angrier then he had been. She saw the clawed are get closer and closer, knowing that she would surely die at this monster's hands. Suddenly she was hit by a huge force that was more like a push than a slash. Opening her eyes she saw the form of Arashi with his hair completely blond shove her and Sasuke out of the way. What happened next horrified everyone.

Gaara had been too close to stop the attack so he continued with it, not caring who he got with it. As Arashi appeared in front of him and pushed the others out of the way Gaara smiled sadistically. Sakura and Naruto both screamed out when the next thing happened. "ARASHI!!!" Gaara's claws ripped into Arashi's left side as blood sprayed everywhere. The slash had ripped off the left side of Arashi's jacket as well as making three deep gashed in his side. Arashi just was falling so slowly compared to his speed earlier that he seemed to be floating. With a smirk and a laugh Gaara swung his arm again and grabbed onto the half-conscious Himura and slamming him into the side of a nearby tree and held him there.

Naruto zipped over and moved the unconscious Uchiha and Sakura who was in shock that Arashi had done that to save her. He picked them up and moved them a little bit away from where Gaara was keeping a hard grip on his best friend. "Arashi!!" He yelled out when the other two had been dropped off in a safer place. "Kuso! Kuso! What do I do now?" Naruto said as he saw Arashi being held in place by Gaara's arm as blood seemed to seep through the sand that was holding him tightly, making him groan in an unconscious pain.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Arashi opened his eyes after feeling the pain of getting slashed by Gaara only to find himself lying in front of Yondaime's cottage in his mindscape. Getting up he was suddenly wracked with pain coming from where he had been hit. Looking down he could see that even in his own mind he had the injury and his jacket had been ripped off. As he looked up Yondaime burst from his little house with a very concerned look on his face.

"What's going on here?"

"**Umm, how do I put this…I got your ass handed to you, your now being slowly crushed into a tree as Gaara is looking to kill everyone else."**

"BAKA!! I know that!" Arashi yelled, causing him to move a little too much and fall over in more pain.

"**Now who's the baka? But as to why you're here, it's because you're out cold."** Yondaime then dropped his playful attitude and got a very serious look oh his face. **"Now hurry and sit down I need to heal you a little bit so you don't bleed to death!"**

Arashi sat down on a conveniently placed stump as yellow chakra poured out of Yondaime and encircled the Himura. Arashi felt a slight warming sensation where he had been hit, looking down he saw the **blood flow slowly come to a stop and the gashes begin to heal and slowly start to close up. "This is going to take a while, you can't heal as fast as Naruto can but I can make it so you still heal several times faster than a normal person."** He said with a concentrated look as he focused his chakra on the deep injury**. "Odds are that you're going to have one hell of a scar there, more like three actually. But at least you won't die."**

Arashi was just sitting there and figured that he would try to put the genjutsu back on his bracers then. "Can I get my bracers back to normal from in here?" Yondaime let out a smile from his concentration and whispered the weight Arashi had been using, he then felt the weight return and settle onto his arms and legs. "You can control them from in here?" He only got a nod back form his Hokage friend. Arashi could tell that Yondaime was ignoring him to finish up his work on his wound, the wound…it brought his thoughts back to Gaara and how the look in his eyes was so familiar to him. "Anou…" Arashi said very quietly. "…why Naruto?"

This sudden question startled Yondaime momentarily, stopping his healing for a second he looked down at the boy in front of him with caring eyes**. "I-I had no other choice…it had to be him." ** He said with he head hung low, not responding further he went back to the wound. Making it clear to Arashi that it wasn't something he had wanted to do, he couldn't hold Yondaime responsible for his and Naruto's childhood pain, if anyone was to be at fault it would have been the villagers.

With a quick look at the outside surrounding s Yondaime decided not to tell Arashi and just let him relax. Things were beginning to start up and he was just hoping that Naruto would be able to beat him.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What's wrong? I thought you were going to run?" Gaara said to the orange clad Shinobi standing in front of him.

It took a second for Naruto to snap out of the panic he had been in after Arashi got hit the way he did. "If you think I'd run away and leave my friends to die…then you'll be really sorry!"

"These three…what are they to you?" Gaara said questioning where Naruto's sudden resolve had come from.

"They're my friends!! I dare you to hurt them any more…I'll kick your ass!" Naruto said angrily pointing a finger at the Shukaku container. With a scowl Gaara simply increased the grip on Arashi's body, causing his to scream unconsciously at some of his ribs beginning to crack.

"I thought you would kick my ass if I hurt them again?" He only glared at the blonde. "Come!" With a leap Naruto shot at Gaara with fury in his eyes, dodging under the swipe of his tail Naruto managed to land a hard punch to his ribs. Gaara grimaced in pain not knowing how he had gotten under his tail, but with a secondary sweep he hit his enemy and flung him back to the branch that Sakura now laid holding onto Sasuke's body.

"Kuso, this is really turning out bad. I have to…I have to save everyone!"

To this remark Gaara only started his deranged laughter once more. "So you fight for others, that's why you guys are so weak. You don't have a reason to fight! Only the winner can feel the value of his existence. Now, forget about your stupid friends and fight only for yourself!"

"Stupid…friends? You have no idea how wrong you are!! To gain true strength you need something that's precious to you that you need to protect! My friends are my precious people, and the one your hold is my most precious one!! You think I don't have a reason to fight?! My friends are one hell of a reason to me!" Naruto said with a glare that made Gaara feel how serious he was on the matter. 'I have to save Arashi…but how?'

"Are you just going to sit there as you 'precious' friend get's crushed to death!?"

Naruto only smirked and did a couple hand signs. Looking up at Gaara he concentrated his chakra to his arms, small cyclones began to form around his arms. Gaara had seen him start to use this jutsu before, he had wondered just what it did and now was curious. Pulling his arms against each other he yelled the jutsu's name. "Futon: Wind Slash Jutsu!!" The cyclones ripped against each other and the slicing stream of chakra shot out at Gaara faster than the Suna Nin had thought it would. The stream hit Gaara head on in an explosion of sand and gusts of wind.

To Naruto surprise when the dust cleared he saw the ripped up form of Gaara's tail stretched out in front of him like a shield. The tail had been badly damaged from the attack but not enough to knock it off, the sand merely pushed out and reformed it as Gaara felt a little strained from reforming the appendage. "A good jutsu…but not good enough!" He yelled as he squeezed Arashi a little harder.

'Kuso, I only have one other option…it's going to use a lot of chakra but I don't have a choice!" He then did the hand signs required for the jutsu. 'I'll have to summon Gamabunta!' Biting his thumb Naruto did the jutsu. "Summoning Jutsu!!"

There was a puff of smoke to signify a summons but to Naruto's horror it wasn't the boss he had gotten…it was Gamakichi! "Hey what'ya doing calling me here squirt? You better have some treats for me!"

"AHHH!! You know I really hate you toads!!"

"What'd you say? You better not disrespect amphibians!"

"Actually I was trying to call your pops but I got the squirt." Naruto was disgusted with himself, he had trained so hard to be able to summon Gamabunta but now when it mattered he couldn't! "I have to save everyone!"

Gaara let out a small laugh when he heard that. "Everyone?" He said lifting up his head to show the sand had formed over his whole face, making it resemble a mini Shukaku. Calling on more power the sand wrapped around Gaara's entire torso and extended down to remake his right arm, leaving only his legs as un-transformed. But also the arm that was holding Arashi started to dissolve at the wrist. The arm dropped down and reformed another hand as the other one held fast to the tree with Arashi still in its clutches. "The sand on your friend won't be released until you defeat me. Not only that, the sand will constrict him tighter as time goes on, eventually killing him!"

Naruto was now very worried and was making it easy to tell, he was frantically thinking of what he could do. Also off on the side Temari was officially freaking out, as Gaara got closer to becoming completely surrounded by the sand she was getting more fearful. She was shaking in her sandals at the thought that he might actually go all the way. Moving his arms in the same motion as Naruto's Wind Slash Gaara went on the offensive. "Suna Shuriken!" About a dozen clods of condensed sand shot out at Naruto and Gamakichi.

Thinking quickly Naruto grabbed onto the toad and held him close as to shield him from the blasts of sand. He was hit hard with one of the clods and was sent flying back into a tree hard. "Damn…you suck kid." The toad said once they came to a stop on a branch.

"Shut up you damn toad, I saved you." Naruto then looked back at the imposing opponent in front of him. It was then that he noticed his eyes and the look in them. 'Such sad eyes…he's just like me, he has a monster within him too.' Naruto then thought back to when he had eyes like that. 'I hated everyone. I didn't know who I was, why I was so hated, or why I existed. But after I found out that I had Kyuubi inside of me I knew why they hated me, it made it seem like the villagers were even more distant from me and hater me more. It was tough…really tough, but…by then I already had people who cared about me. I had Arashi, Hinata-chan, all of my friends, Sasame-chan, Oji-san, and Iruka-sensei. They made it easier to live with what I had inside of me, I was happy and they gave me a purpose. After some time I had Kakashi-sensei, my rivalry with Sasuke had brought him closer and made a friend out of him, and Sakura too. I had people who acknowledged me, I wasn't alone anymore. When I was a kid I never thought it could be such a happy and joyful thing, I was truly happy…but when I thought about the past and how my life was like before I met Arashi…it creeps me out. It wasn't a normal pain, it was dark as hell. If I had remained alone and never met Arashi or any of the others…I could have turned into what he is. That's how I understand. I don't know what happened…but he has been alone and has been suffering like I was. But he's still there, in that dark place…fighting against that hell.'

Naruto saw the sand constrict against Arashi again and heard his yells of pain. Whatever doubt Naruto had about his abilities to defeat him were whipped away when he heard Arashi's pained yells. He didn't even feel it when he was hit hard by several blasts of Suna Shuriken, getting up to his feet after being bashed into a tree behind him he could feel an odd power flowing through him. "What is this…" He said before he was hit with another blast of sand the sent him through several branches and into another tree. "What is this feeling? It's gushing out of me I feel like I'm on fire! I don't know why but…I won't lose to a guy like him even if it kills me!!" He said as he felt power flowing through him, it was like in his match against Neji but also different. It was more powerful and had a different feel to it, a more right feeling.

"**Here, you'll need this."** Kyuubi muttered to her container as she supplied him with the needed chakra to take down the Biju she hated the most, Shukaku.

'Thanks Kyuubi, I can do this now!' He then reached into his hip pouch and pulled out a kunai and exploding tag. "I don't know how far I'll get, but I'll go as far as I can! Kage Bunshin Jutsu!" He yelled as four new Narutos were made. "Let's go guys we've got a friend to save!" Leaping into the air the Narutos closed in on the waiting Shukaku container. "I'll show you a secret technique…The Uzumaki Clone Body Slam!"

Gaara smirked and thrust his arm up and gripped onto three of the clones. "Okay!" The fourth clone then gripped onto the real Naruto and threw him forward like a bullet. Just as he was about to get smashed by the other are Naruto made another Kage Bunshin that he jumped off of to avoid the blow, now falling behind Gaara Naruto once again made a Kage Bunshin to jump off of to land right behind Gaara. "Take this! The move that Kakashi-sensei taught me…Konohagakure no Sato's secret taijutsu…1000 Years of Death!!" Naruto yelled as he thrust the kunai strait into Gaara's butt."

"An enema?" Pakkun said as he sweat dropped from Naruto's move.

Gaara savagely knocked Naruto away with his tail, but despite getting pummeled like that he could only let a laugh escape his lips as the tag ignited. "Boom." He whispered with a smile as he sailed away, the tag then blew up in a huge explosion that blew sand everywhere as well as smoke. He was about to slam into a tree when Sasuke shot out of no where and intercepted his comrade. "Sasuke?"

"I take it back that was really a nice move." Pakkun said correcting himself after the tag went off.

The smoke then began to clear, but from inside it heavy breathing could be heard. When it finally cleared, the form of Gaara could be seen. But his right side of his body had taken a huge blow and the sand wasn't keeping its shape very well, the same went for his tail. "You did all that, but only managed one hit?" Sasuke said receiving a smug look from Naruto.

"I didn't expect his to attack me at the base of my tail, where the armor is thinnest." Gaara said to himself as he slumped against the charred crater now ripped into the trunk of the large tree. "I wasn't wounded…but the sand couldn't absorb all the impact. I underestimated him, it seems he's even better than I thought."

Sasuke was currently glancing over at the trapped Himura. "Naruto, you better save him no matter what. Once you get him out take Sakura and get out of here! You can do it, I can buy you some time…" He said struggling to get up. Naruto was in shock that Sasuke would suggest that he would help, but mostly that Naruto would simply run away. "If it ends here, it will just mean that I was only capable of getting this far." Naruto raised an eyebrow to this remark not knowing what he meant by it. "I have already lost everything once…I never want to see an important friend die in front of me again!"

"An important friend?" Naruto said with a shocked look on his face, had Sasuke just acknowledged that he was friends with Naruto. That their rivalry had pushed them to become friends even though they weren't on the same team? Hearing what Sasuke had said for some reason he heard Kakashi's voice in his head. _"I won't let the people on my team die."_ From his fight with Zabuza he had told them that, and now Sasuke and Sakura were part of his team at the moment and were on his 'team' of friends.

Naruto squeezed his hands into tight fists and stood up with a glare directed towards Gaara. "He's the same as me, he's been through the same sadness and loneliness as I have in my life, that's why I thought he was stronger if only for a second, because he was alone and fought for only himself."

"Naruto?" Sasuke said not knowing what his newly acknowledged friend was talking about. 'Sadness and loneliness…that sounds like me.'

"But I've know what being strong really is, it's protecting those important to you! Sasuke, go take care of Sakura…you need to rest some also. This guy…is mine!" He said as he felt Kyuubi's power flowing through him again. Concentrating on molding enough chakra to Sasuke it looked like Naruto suddenly erupted in a mass of chakra he though was humanly impossible to have.

'He's creating a gigantic amount of chakra! Is this really Naruto!?!'

"I swear…I will protect everyone!!!" He yelled at Gaara who was still trying to reform himself after the explosion, bringing his hands up into his favorite sign Naruto smirked. "Tajuu Kage Bunshin Jutsu!!!" He screamed as in a huge cloud of smoke covered the area of the forest they were in. As it cleared Sasuke was awed to find that the entire forest was filled up with 2,000 Narutos!

Everyone around watching was in a state of shock and awe as the clones materialized, none of them had ever seen so many created at once! "Looks like he's pretty good after all." The small red toad said with a smile.

"Sorry to keep you waiting...but this is where the Legend of Naruto Uzumaki begins!" The real Naruto said to Gaara with a smile while Sasuke had fallen back in shock behind him.

"What's with this number of Bunshin!?" Gaara asked himself trying to find any answer as to how this guy in front of him could have such power inside of him.

"Naruto…did you…how?" Sasuke said with a rising respect for the orange clad Shinobi.

"Sasuke…I told you to rest and take care of Sakura, I'm sure she'll like that. Just leave this guy to me." Naruto then began ordering his clones with a raised fist and a powerful voice. "ALLRIGHT!!! It's time to save Arashi and everyone else! Everyone, let's go!! Take 'em off!" A chorus of 'Hai's were heard from the thousands of Narutos. "KAI!" They all yelled as their bracers were dispelled, after seeing Arashi do it Naruto wanted to go all out against this guy. "Let's fly!" With that every single one of the Narutos seemed to disappear from sight. Suddenly a huge mass of clones appeared overhead Gaara, looking up he saw what was coming and had a bad feeling about it. "The Shuriken-from-everywhere legend!" They all yelled as hundreds of shuriken came flying at Gaara much to his displeasure.

"My body isn't ready yet!" He said as he managed to block most of the shuriken with his one good arm.

But just as he managed to stop the incoming blades he failed to see several clones jump up from below him. The several clones all smiled and collided hard with upwards kicks that sent Gaara spiraling towards the awaiting clone mass overhead. "U…ZU…MA…KI!!" The clones above met the incoming enemy devastatingly hard with a flurry of punches. "Naruto Two Thousand Rendan!" Punch after punch the clones smashed into Gaara as his sand was beaten to a pulp and began to become deformed like after the explosion earlier except this time Naruto kept hitting him and stripping his sand right off of him and sending him plummeting down to the ground to create a large crater.

Coming to a painful crash into the hard ground below Gaara now looked more like he was encased in dough instead of sand. Temari was utterly shocked that Naruto could inflict so much damage while Gaara was in this form. Not letting Gaara get a break the clones began to plummet after Gaara planning on a secondary attack. "Now to follow it up…we'll use out legs and do a Four Thousand Rendan!"

Back in the crater Gaara couldn't get over how powerful the boy had become. "This guy…who is he? He suddenly got all this power, where is it coming from?" He said as he glared murderously at the incoming mass of clones. "Me…lose to this guy?" Then a powerful anger erupted from within Gaara, sitting up he screamed up to the incoming Narutos. "THERE'S NO WAY I CAN LOSE TO THIS GUY!!!" The clones looked confused as to what was going on, but suddenly the Gaara below sprung forth as a giant wave of sand the shot upwards. All of the clones were killed and lucky for Naruto he was barely knocked off to land on a branch and look up in horror at what had appeared in front of him. After the smoke from the destroyed clones vanished everyone looked in disbelief as a full sized sand replica of Shukaku stood towering hundreds of feet over them.

"What the hell is that thing!?" Sasuke said as he looked up from making sure that Sakura was all right, she had passed out about a minute after Arashi had saved them from shock that he would have sacrificed himself to save them.

'It has finally come out…the perfect form! I need to get out of here or he'll kill us all!' Temari thought as she turned and dashed away to get some distance, seeing this Sasuke figured it was a god idea and grabbed onto Sakura and Pakkun and got some distance.

"That's…the monster inside him?" Naruto said looking at the physical representation of the Biju.

"I didn't expect to show you guys this form!" The giant sand Tanuki said as he raised his arm to point at Naruto, thinking this odd Naruto wondered what was going on. Suddenly he remembered what had almost happened to Lee after Gaara made that movement. Looking down Naruto wasn't surprised to find a mass of sand slowly surrounding him to crush him to death in a few seconds.

"NARUTO!!" Sasuke yelled out as his curse mark began to hurt once more. "Kuso…my body!"

'Damn I used up most of my chakra for those Bunshins! Kyuubi…I need some more! Please!' He didn't hear a response but immediately felt to flow of chakra increase dramatically as Kyuubi's chakra flowed into him. 'Arashi…I will save you!' The sand was getting thicker and thicker and was beginning to constrict his, slowly going through hand signs Naruto prayed that it would work this time. Reaching up he flicked his thumb over the small trickle of blood coming out of his mouth.

"This is it for you! Sabaku Sos…" Gaara was about to crush his enemy to nothingness when he was cut off.

"SUMMONING JUTSU!!" Naruto yelled as the sand around him exploded off of him in a gigantic cloud of smoke, revealing the Toad Boss Gamabunta facing Gaara with a confident and defiant Naruto striking a pose on his head.

"W-When could Naruto do that!? How does he have that much chakra!?" Sasuke yelled out.

"Amazing…He summoned his in this situation." The dog next to him remarked in a monotone voice.

"I WILL protect Arashi and everyone!" Naruto said as he looked up dramatically at Gaara's transformed form from his new vantage point on top of Gamabunta's head.

'Naruto Uzumaki…you entertain me greatly. This should be the most fun I've ever had!' The red haired demon container thought as he saw the gigantic toad appear in front of him.

'My training has finally produced some results!' Naruto thought to himself after summoning the Toad Boss. 'Yup, I can win this!'

It was then that Gamabunta finally decided to open his eyes and speak up. "What the hell? It's you again squirt…what do you want?" He then noticed the thing in front of him staring him down murderously. "Shukaku, eh?"

"That's right Boss, fight with me Dattebayo!"

To the remark Gamabunta only blew out a long stream of smoke from his pipe. "Nope."

"WHAAAT!?!"

"Why should I have to fight that guy? That's just stupid!"

"What? You said you would make me your subordinate last time! As a Boss aren't you supposed to help a subordinate in trouble, right!?" Naruto yelled while slapping the Toad's head. "Isn't that your moral code?!"

"I did say that…but we haven't had a drink together."

"WHAAA!! I'm underage, I can't have a drink you BAKA!! What kind of kid do you think I am!?" Naruto screamed at the Toad for insinuating that he would drink while underage. After his outburst at the huge Toad Naruto felt something land on his head.

Looking up and feeling his head he found that it was none other than Gamakichi sitting atop his head. "Aww, come on pops, you should listen to him."

"Why are you here, Gamakichi?" The small toad's father asked.

Thinking quick the little one thought up a perfect plan to help out Naruto. "I was bored, so I came out here to play…at least that was until that guy tried to pick on me!" He said pointing at the awaiting Gaara.

"What did you say?" Gamabunta asked while glaring viciously at the sand Tanuki in front of him.

"Then Naruto here helped me out, he was able to fight against that guy evenly until he took that form. This guy's pretty interesting!"

"I see." The boss said as he narrowed his eyes, he locked gazes with his new enemy measuring him up. Reaching back Bunta grabbed onto his tanto that he keeps oh him, slowly pulling it out as the sun shone off of the sharp blade. "Kid! I officially accept you as my subordinate. It's time I showed you how the moral code works in this world." He said readied for battle against the Ichibi. "You're going to pay for what you did Shukaku!" Pulling the sword back Bunta launched himself at Gaara ready for an attack. "Hang on tight kid!" Gaara lifted his right arm to slash out at the incoming toad, but he was just too slow this time. Quickly dodging under the arm Gamabunta slashed upwards hardly, with a final push on his blade it ripped through the arm severing it as Bunta flew past the now one armed Tanuki.

'Amazing…' Naruto thought as he saw what Gamabunta was capable of. As he had cut through the arm Gamabunta had let go of the blade, which now fell back to earth with a blast. Everyone watching from in the forest beneath them was shaken by the sudden earthquake.

'What a guy…he's so heavy I was barely able to cut through him with my blade. I need to finish this quickly, or the landscape here is going to change drastically.'

"Hey Boss! We need to stay away from over there, Arashi and everyone else is there and I don't want them getting hurt!" Naruto said to his summon making sure to keep his friends safe. "Lure him over here! I need to defeat him to save them all."

Despite loosing an arm Gaara suddenly bust into laughter. "This is great! You really are interesting Uzumaki!" With an odd sound of moving sand Naruto looked closely to see the form of the real Gaara appear on the Tanuki's head from the torso up.

"Is that the medium?" Bunta asked causing Naruto to look confused at the Toad.

"As a reward for entertaining me, I'll show you the true power of the Shukaku!" Gaara said as he looked menacingly at his enemies.

"Those rings under his eyes…" Once again Naruto was confused, so the Boss filled him in. "Those possessed by Shukaku become insomniacs because if they were to sleep then the power of Shukaku would arise and eat away at their personalities, leaving nothing but a deranged murderous psychopath. So when the medium is awake Shukaku's powers are limited…but if he were to fall asleep…"

Naruto was worried now about what might happen, especially when he saw Gaara make a hand sign. In the entire battle he hadn't seen him use one but now that he was he was worried. "Forced Sleep Jutsu." Gaara muttered as he slumped over asleep, Naruto reeled back not wanting to know what would happen next. Suddenly the eyes of the monster of sand light up as a greater power surged through its body. "YATTA!!!!" It screamed in a voice not Gaara's. "I'M FINALLY OUT!!" It screamed again while doing a strange little dance. Looking over he noticed the toad looking at him seriously. "I've found you! Someone I want to kill! FUTON: DRILLING AIR BULLET!!" Shukaku screamed as he inhaled a large amount of air and infused it with chakra while compressing it.

"Hold on tight kid, we're going up!" Gamabunta said as Shukaku released his attack that blasted towards them only to have it go flying under them as they were airborne. "Suiton: Gun Bullet!" The toad then shot massive blast of water out of his mouth like a canon, only to have it be met mid flight by another air bullet. The water then sprayed everywhere and made it seem to the spectators as if a Monsoon had just hit them.

Landing behind Shukaku, the Toad Boss quickly leapt again to get leverage on his enemy. "Futon!" Bunta heard behind him as he was in the air. Seeing several blasts shot out towards him, he quickly turned and fired back with his own attack hoping to nullify the incoming balls of air. But unluckily Bunta only got two shots off while the third blast of Shukaku's ripped through the water in the air and slammed into the airborne toad making a large explosion in the sky. "YEAH!! I killed him! I killed him!" Shukaku screamed as he pumped his remaining arm in victory.

"That hurt, damn it!" Bunta said as he jumped out of the smoke and sped towards the Tanuki. "That air had a lot of chakra compressed into it, even I won't last long if I get hit by more of those!"

"Then what can we do!?" Naruto shouted desperately wanting to end this. It was then that he saw something that caught his eye, back in the direction of Konoha he could barely make out the shape of a huge bird of some sort heading their way. 'Hinata-chan, you really do care about Arashi more than anything.'

"Well for started we need to wake up that medium, if we do that Shukaku will be forced to go back inside him!" Bunta thought hard as he saw Shukaku preparing for another attack. "We need to get close to him and you then give him a hard whack to wake him up, he hasn't been under that jutsu for long so it shouldn't take much!"

"But how do we get close enough!?"

"Just hold on!" He yelled as he dodged another air bullet and fired off a water blast. Shukaku simply backed up to avoid the shot, but with the water spraying in front of him he couldn't see the Toad. That was until he came through the water and grabbed onto Shukaku with his webbed hands. "Now kid!" Naruto was just about to jump out at the sleeping Gaara when Shukaku pulled back and slipped out of Gamabunta's slippery grip, moving quickly Bunta leapt away as not to get hit with an air blast.

"Boss, you need to hold on to him, or I can't hit him!!"

"I know that, a toad like me has no claws or fangs to correctly hold onto him with!" He said thinking of how to solve this problem. "I'll need to Henge into something that has claws and fangs! But…"

"BUT!?!?!"

"But I'm not very good at Henge, I'll need you to give me the form and make the seals! A combination Henge!" With that Bunta sped forward as Naruto desperately was trying to think of anything with claws and fangs. But his mind was drawing a blank, as they got closer Bunta called out for Naruto to start the Henge. It was then that he heard someone say the word Kit…he had it.

"HENGE!!" A large cloud of smoke appeared, suddenly a furry red clawed arm burst through the smoke cloud. When came next was a surprise to everyone watching, bursting through the smoke was what resembled Kyuubi. With a snarl from the razor-like teeth lined mouth, he sped out at a stunned Shukaku.

Regaining his composer Shukaku fired a blast of air off at the incoming Kitsune, only for it to be easily dodged. Skidding to a stop behind the Tanuki, the transformed Bunta used the tails to grab onto several trees and thrust them at Shukaku who had just fired another blast at them. Just as he had planned the air and trees exploded on contact and made Shukaku think he hit them. Bursting from the shower of splinters Bunta gripped onto Shukaku with the fangs and claws of a Kitsune. "Do it now!" Bunta yelled as Naruto leapt from his head dispelling the Henge.

Coming down Naruto readied his fist for a very basic attack. "WAKE UP!!" He yelled as he slammed his fist hard onto Gaara's unprotected cheek, getting a pained groan from the boy as he was forced to wake up. Naruto then continued his airborne path and came to a tumbling halt as he fell onto the Sand Tanuki's nose.

"DAMN IT!! I JUST GOT OUT!!" Shukaku screamed as Gaara woke up and he was forced back inside the boy.

Bunta was still getting pushed back even though the jutsu had been dispelled. "He's still got some power left in him kid, we need to end this now!"

Standing up from where he fell, Naruto heard the Toad tell him what to do and took off in a flash towards the stationary Gaara. 'That guy dispelled my jutsu…?" With a movement of his hand the sand around Naruto's foot turned soft and swallowed his foot up, effectively stopping him in his tracks. "Sabaku Kyu!" He yelled as the sand leapt to surround him and crush him, only to be blocked at the last moment by Gamabunta's tongue.

"It's Boss's tongue!" Naruto said to himself as he noticed how he was saved.

"That won't help you for LONG!!" Gaara screamed in anger as the sand underneath Naruto's feet began to snake its way around him, feeling what was happening Bunta retracted his tongue and watched as he hoped his new subordinate and son of a good friend could make it.

'How much power does this guy have left? This is bad Naruto and have used up almost all of out chakra!'

Looking down at the boy who was slowly being engulfed by sand Gaara couldn't wait to taste his blood. "I will kill you, my existence will not disappear! Then I'll go and kill your friends!"

Naruto could feel a flame inside him burn bright when Gaara threatened to kill his friends. 'I will protect my friends no matter what!'

"I'm going to kill you now!" The sand began to move farther up Naruto until it was at his waist.

'I'm running short of time…I need to defeat this monster Tanuki quickly! Kyuubi…I know I've asked a lot today…but give me some power. Even if it's just a little bit!' Clasping his hands together he felt the chakra pulse from him. "AHHHHH!!!" He yelled as the red chakra surrounded him like fire, bursting the sand off of him as well as knocking off his head band and ripping open his jacket. Standing there in a red flaming glory Naruto clenched his fists to take down the person who threatened his friends' existences. 'I will protect everyone!!' "Let's go you baka Tanuki!!"

"DIE!!" Gaara screamed as Naruto sped towards him faster than he could see, luckily for him the sand managed to catch him as his fist was inches away from his face.

"GOD…DAMN YOU!!" Naruto screamed as he thrust his head forward and hit Gaara directly on with a full force head butt. The pain Gaara was feeling was incredible, blood started to pour from where Naruto had hit him. With no look on his face at all the sand began to crumble and fall away, until the two barely conscious boys began to fall from where Naruto had bashed Gaara's head.

"A simple head butt, eh?" Bunta said with a laugh. 'It's too bad I can't stick around I'm exhausted…you really are an interesting one Naruto Uzumaki.' "Gamakichi let's go we're out of here."

In a huge blast of smoke Gamabunta left the area and from the blast it knocked the falling boys onto the top of two trees. Sitting up Naruto was the first to notice how Bunta's blade was still there but it was the reflection that got him. The blade was placed so that he was looking at Gaara but half of him was Naruto's reflection, Naruto found it fitting because of what they both carried inside of them. "I'm already empty…you are too, right? Let's end this battle between two similar people. I won't let you hurt my friends!" Naruto yelled as he leapt forward with his last ounce of strength as did Gaara.

They both closed in for one final attack, but to Gaara's surprise it was Naruto that connected. A hard punch to the jaw that sent Gaara flying down to the ground in a battered heap. Naruto followed suit and fell to the ground but had come out on top with the punch. Turning his head towards Naruto Gaara just couldn't believe that he had been beaten!

Else where the sand that had held Arashi onto the tree began to fall off, Arashi's unconscious body then began to fall to the ground but was caught by the last Uchiha in Konoha. Laying Arashi down next to Sakura he jumped off to go get Naruto, but looking at Arashi's body he couldn't help but notice a couple things. First was the fact that the amount of blood he lost wasn't consistent with how long he had been up there, and with a wound as large as Arashi's he should have bleed to death. Secondly was that the huge gashes had almost closed up already, which given the amount of time since he got the injuries Sasuke knew it was physically impossible. But last if was the memory of seeing the Sharingan blazing in his eyes, how had he had them? 'Just who are you Arashi?' He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind, now was not the time he had to get to Naruto.

Once Naruto had landed he found that he couldn't stand up. Still feeling the need to talk to Gaara he began the painful process of crawling towards the fallen Suna Nin using his toes and chin. Seeing his struggle Gaara couldn't quite understand the guy crawling towards him. 'Why…is he so strong? My existence will not disappear…I will not!'

Crawling closer by the second Naruto couldn't help but the pain of his past before Arashi and the slight pain now whenever one of the villagers would make a bad remark. Just thinking that the guy before him had gone through the same pain and was still in it made Naruto hurt. Thinking of what he had hear form the boy he realized why there was so much pain there for them, it was because they had the feeling that they weren't needed by anyone in this world. His friends had saved Naruto from that pain, but not Gaara. "Don't come closer!" Gaara yelled out at Naruto as he continued to crawl towards him.

"The pain of being alone…is like no other, isn't it?" Naruto said to his defeated enemy with a pained look on his face and tears beginning to form in his eyes. "I've been there, I know that pain. I understand your feelings so much…it actually hurts. But I…I have people who are important to me now. I won't let you hurt my important people!" Now the compassion in Naruto's eyes changed to rage, as his pupils seemed to change for a second to fox like slits. "If you do…I'll stop you, even if I have to kill you!"

"Why? Why do you do this for strangers!?"

"My loneliness…That hell…They saved me from it and acknowledged my existence years ago, the one you were crushing to that tree was the first one to show me friendship, and he's the most important person to me. They're important to me…that's why!"

Looking up at the shining Sun Gaara couldn't help but remember some of the only kind words he had ever heard. _"Love is the spirit of devoting yourself to someone important and close to you. It is expressed by caring for and protecting that person."_ ' Love…is that why he's so strong?'

"You can stop now Naruto." A voice said in front of him, painfully looking up Naruto saw Sasuke standing over him. "Arashi's fine now, he must be out of chakra too…since the sand holding him fell of and released him."

"I see…" Was all Naruto said with a smile as he passed out.

Just then Temari and Kankuro landed in front of Gaara ready to take down the other two in front of them. "Don't fight them, we're done here. Let's stop."

"Gaara…" 'I've never seen him like this before, he looks so weak.' "Okay." Kankuro said as he reached down and picked up his little brother. Turning around Gaara could only give a pained look at Naruto before the Suna Nin jumped up and fled the scene.

'Naruto Uzumaki, eh? Maybe one day I'll be able have people who care for me too…' After some distance Gaara decided to speak up. "Temari…Kankuro…" They both looked at him. "I'm sorry…"

The other two just looked at each other in utter confusion. "D-Don't worry about it Gaara…" Kankuro replied as they continued on their present course.

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Hinata and Elwing had just gotten to where the battle had been happening. Looking down she saw sand and destroyed trees everywhere, all she could think about was is Arashi and Naruto were okay. "Hinata-sama, there are two people right below us, I'm taking us down." She only nodded her head.

With a gust of wind the huge Eagle landed in the clearing where Gaara and the others had left from. Sasuke was staring at her bug-eyed. 'When the hell has she been capable of doing that!? Damn you Kakashi, what do you have your team doing??'

"Sasuke-san! Where are the others??" Hinata said after she looked Naruto over to see that he would be fine after a little bit in the hospital. Placing Naruto's unconscious body on Elwing's back she followed Sasuke to where the other two were. As they sped towards it Sasuke told her all about what had happened with Arashi, hearing it all she couldn't hold her tears back as they dashed.

Finally getting to where they were, Hinata broke down next to Arashi's battered body. He had three huge scare marks on the right side of his torso. They were almost completely closed by then and that confused Hinata severely. She then saw his hair and smiled through her tears, his head was now covered in golden locks and she really liked it. His hair was now the same color as Naruto's just in a different style. With a loud whistle Hinata called for Elwing to come to them.

"Hinata-san…" Sasuke said wanting to try and find some answers about how he had seen Arashi with the Sharingan. "H-How…"

He just stopped, not being able to bring it up. "W-What is it Sasuke-san?" She asked but before he could speak back up Elwing landed next to them.

Loading the still out cold Sakura and Arashi onto the Eagle's back, the other two got on as they made their flight back to Konoha. Hinata had Arashi's head lying in her lap the same way he had been the night after he first summoned Fenrir, and she was playing with his hair. "H-Hina-chan…" He seemed to whisper to her, but didn't say another word.

The day had been a most shocking one for Sasuke, he had been shown up and saved by Naruto, seen that Arashi had a Sharingan and was saved by him, and seen Hinata's care for her team mates and some of her abilities. There was just so much that was going on in his head, but as they approached Konoha he could see the smoke rising in certain areas. 'Something's not right here, like something's gone. I have a bad feeling about this.'

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**Holy Crap, mega chapter!! I swear I didn't mean for it to be that long, I just got in a groove and went with it.**

**Well you people are really lucky like an hour before I finished that chapter I got the 10th review so I can update. If they hadn't I would have waited for a 10th one.**

**Since I've done 10 the last two chapters I'm going to up it to 15 reviews, so if you guys want to see more you have to review!!**

**I can't wait to keep going with this story! I had wanted to get past here for so long, because I have so many ideas and plans but they all happen after this and the Tsunade arc. So soon it will get even better…if that's even possible!**

**So REVIEW!!!**


	19. I'll Always remember This Day

**Review Reply:**

**Cloudfightback:** Thanks for the review, hope you enjoy the chapter and continue to review in the future.

**Unknown-nin345:** I intend on having some comedy in that arc.

**kibagaagalover18:** Yeah my lack of reviews really does suck, they motivate me to write more and faster. But I'm glad you enjoy my fic!

**the16thday: ** Yeah I'm not really worried about the length it's more of a way of explaining why it took so long to update.

**Harpygirl91:** Well here it is! (Takes a bow)

**Static44:** Yeah I'm trying to make it feel like the actual story, an adaptation on canon rather than something completely new. But yeah I'm looking forward to the 100 mark, but I did break the 10,000 hit mark earlier this week!

**Chosha Kurenai: **Yeah you're going to have to wait and see what I hinted at, hahaha!

**daemon452: **It wasn't the exact same, there were lots of differences. But it was similar b/c of the closeness to canon I wanted to have.

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto!

**Ok to settle a few things, 1) the reason this chapter is so late is b/c my computer died and I had to get Best Buy to mail it away and fix it. I still haven't gotten it back so I have been forced to write on the school compys. But they suck and I can't use my material on them, so I haven't been inspired lately. Well here you go; finally I got around to writing it!**

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Slowly Naruto opened his eyes with a groan, only to be instantly blinded by the familiar glare of the ever present fluorescent lighting in Konoha's hospital. "W-What the hell happened?" He groaned again as his eyesight returned to him, focusing his groggy eyes he began to take in his surroundings. Looking to his left Naruto could clearly see the sleeping and bandaged form of Arashi in the bed next to him with Hinata fast asleep on the side of the bed. Continuing his evaluation of the room he shifter his gaze to the other side of his bed, only to be met with the teary-eyed and smiling face of his red headed girlfriend. "S-Sasame-chan!?"

"NARUTO-KUN!!" She basically screamed as she glomped onto him with a huge smile on her face. Her outburst not only caught Naruto by surprise but also managed to snap Hinata out of her Arashi filled dreams.

"Sorry about that Hinata-chan, it looks like she was really worr..." He began saying apologetically to his white-eyed team mate, but he was suddenly silenced by a passion filled kiss that made his head spin. Everything around him disappeared so that it was now only him and Sasame sharing the moment; it completely blew away anything else he had ever experienced. He reviled in the softness of her lips pressed against his, the subtle wetness lingering on them as they were made one with his, and the tiny taste of strawberries he picked up on. When the kiss and embrace was broken, Naruto looked deep into her chocolate colored eyes and saw a look he had not yet seen in them...complete care, devotion, and the tiniest hint of perhaps love? The look in her eyes had taken him perhaps even more than the actual kiss had, it was a look that made Naruto want to just hold onto her and never let go, to go up to the roof and yell out his as of yet unspoken love for her to the entire village.

Seeing the open display in front of her, Hinata couldn't help but blush deeply while the desire for it to be her and Arashi engaging in what Naruto and Sasame had just done consumed her mind. She wanted Arashi to look at her with the look Sasame had given Naruto and she wished that Arashi would show that amount of care for her. Not wanting to ruin the moment for her usually orange clad team mate, she silently got out of her chair and slipped out of the room while giving a final glance at the sleeping Himura. After leaving the room she decided to pay Kakashi a visit while he was getting patched up.

Entering the room Hinata saw Kakashi calmly sitting on a near bye chair reading his perverted book as the nurse replaced a bandage on his right shoulder. "Y-You know Kakashi-sensei, it's rude to read t-that book with a woman in the room." She said trying to make a little joke at her sensei's expense, as much time as she had spent with Naruto and Arashi it was only natural that their sense of humor had rubbed off on her a little bit.

"Hinata, was that actually a joke?" The silver haired Jonin said playfully to his student. But as soon as his playful smile had come, it disappeared into a serious look. "Have you told them yet?"

Hinata's mood was also instantly changed at the question given to her. "Anou…only Naruto-kun is up b-but as soon as he woke up Sasame-chan j-jumped on him. I left as not to r-ruin their moment. B-But no they don't know about S-Sandaime-sama." She said with her head down and her gaze at her feet.

"Good." Kakashi stated but was met with a questioning look from the Hyuuga. "He was like a Grandfather for those two; I don't want them to know until the last possible moment. It's for their own good, I don't think that they are going to take this well. He was basically family and when you don't have any real family like them; losing someone precious to them could hurt more than any wound could."

Hinata was now very worried about how her two friends would react to the news of Sarutobi's death. She didn't know what to do, she desperately wanted to help them out and make sure that they were okay. As if reading her mind Kakashi put a comforting hand on his student's shoulder. "What they need now is someone to show them they still have people who care for them and that not all is lost. They need to be shown love and I don't think Naruto needs help from you in that department." With a deep blush Hinata picked up on what her sensei was trying to say.

The door to the room suddenly opened much to Hinata's surprise and the doctor who had been in Naruto and Arashi's room earlier stepped in. "Kakashi-sama, both of the boy's tests came back with no problems. It would look as if they are just sleeping now, when they wake up they are free to go…I guess I'll see you tomorrow." He said and quickly left the room leaving a happy and somewhat confused Hinata.

"W-What did he mean by seeing you tomorrow Sensei?"

"Sandaime-sama's funeral is tomorrow, I'm sure you know what to wear." Hinata nodded in agreement to him. "I guess I'll go tell them…" Kakashi said to himself as he got up with a scowl on his face, he really didn't want to do this. Ignorance is bliss, he knew they would be crushed when they heard and didn't want to see their faces when he told them. "It's getting late; you can go home now Hinata, I'll see you tomorrow too."

He went out the door towards the boy's room and found that Hinata was still walking beside him. "I'm not g-going quite yet." Kakashi could only smile slightly at the girl's care for the now blonde Himura.

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Arashi was having a great dream about Hinata when he was snapped out of it by a yell that could only come from his blonde friend. Slowly opening his eyes he sat up with a groan and expected to feel pain ripping through him from his wound but instead felt nothing. Pulling his shirt up he looked down to see three large claw shaped scars on his left side. The scars looked like they had been there for years, not since the day before! He was then tackled by a blonde blur that took him completely by surprise. "ARASHI YOU'RE AWAKE!!!"

"Get off of me you BAKA!" He yelled while pushing Naruto off, sending him flying back onto his bed. Looking up and rubbing his shoulder where he had hit the ground he saw that Sasame was looking at him oddly. Realizing that his shirt was still pulled up and she was getting a clear view of his abs, he pulled it down with a blush while apologizing to the red head. "So what was all that yelling about? You pulled me out of a good dream!"

"A good one huh…" He then leaned over to his girlfriend. "Must have been about Hinata-chan."

"I heard that!!" Arashi proclaimed with a slight twitch of his eye.

Naruto was laughing at Arashi for basically telling them that he was dreaming about Hinata. Feeling Sasame grab his hand and squeeze it he figured that it was enough and it was time to tell his friend the good news. "But to answer your first question…I got some good news. It appears that due to the problems that are happening in the Land of Rice Fields, the Fuma clan has decided to immigrate to Konoha…Sasame is going to be living here!! Oji-san approved their immigration before the finals!"

"That's great!!" Arashi said in support of his best friend. In the back of his mind the thought that he had been repressing for a bit came up and he had to deal with it. "Demo…Sasame-chan can you please leave us for a bit, I have something I need to talk to Naruto about…" He said with a slightly lowered head.

Knowing that it must be something of importance Sasame nodded and quietly left the room after giving Naruto a soft kiss on the cheek. "W-What is it Arashi?" His blond friend asked while turning his head slightly to the side like a curious fox.

Arashi was now clenching his fists hard while not really wanting to bring it up, but he knew he had too…for Naruto's sake. With a flash of his silver eyes a sound barrier was put up around them so that no one would hear what was being said. Naruto saw the grayish film surround them and form up on the walls making the entire room a safe box of sound. "I…I-I know…"

Naruto could barely hear what he said but he didn't like where it had the possibilities of going. What if Kyuubi had been right about him figuring out about her, what would he do if he lost his best friend? "You k-know what?"

Arashi now was looking straight at the ground as a trickle of tears appeared as he thought about how they were treated as children and how everyone had hated Naruto for something he had no control over at all. That the person that he had sealed inside him was the one responsible for it; all of a sudden he remembered something that Yondaime had said. He had told Arashi not to dwell on the past when he told him all the Himuras had been killed by Kyuubi. It all fit together now, he had said so to try and protect Naruto, but why? It opened up several more questions for Arashi, but he had this to deal with right now. "About Kyuubi…"

From those two words the good feeling that he had the whole time he had been awake was crushed. His worst fear had been realized; his best friend had somehow figured out his darkest secret and most likely hated him now because his entire clan was destroyed by the demon sealed inside of him. Visibly pulling back Naruto couldn't look at his friend who was now looking at him with watery eyes. "Oh…I understand if you never want to speak to me again, just don't kill me please…" He said as everything became blurry from the liquid forming in his eyes.

"Why would I do that? You're my best friend; we've been through everything together. I think of you as my brother, no matter what I'll be here…" He was suddenly cut off by a gigantic hug from Naruto.

"How can you say that, she killed your entire clan! Everyone hates me for it…" He said still trying to get it through his head that he had been accepted by Arashi.

"You're wrong Naruto." Arashi said as he finally got out of Naruto's grasp and sat back on his bed as Naruto sat back on his so that they were looking right at each other. "It's only those stupid villagers who do, but that's because they don't know you, they only see Kyuubi and not you. Plus there are lots of people who know about it and still accept you, like Oji-san, Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei, Ero-Sennin, all of our friend's parents, the other sensei, and most of the other Shinobi we know."

Naruto had never thought of that before, he really had people who accepted him for who he is and not what is inside of him. "Thank you Arashi, thank you for accepting me and showing me others do to!" He said with a happy feeling that even beat out hearing about Sasame moving here.

"No problem…but that's only half of what I needed to tell you and I ask for your acceptance." Naruto now looked rather confused, and Arashi seemed to cringe at the thought of mentioning what he still had to say. "We are even more similar than you think Naruto…" Naruto's head was spinning; he had no idea what Arashi could be leading towards. "…We are both containers."

"What do you mean…containers?"

"I wish I could make the seal appear so I could show you but I can't. Just like you have Kyuubi sealed inside of you, I have something sealed inside my soul." Asking for a tiny bit of chakra Arashi channeled some of the yellow charka around his arm making it seem his arm was in a flame of yellow. "Yondaime Hokage, the person who sealed Kyuubi into you, sealed himself into me before his soul could be devoured."

Yondaime had been his idol for as long as he could remember, the perfect representation of what a Shinobi should aspire to be, the most powerful ninja ever in Konoha. But when he found out about Kyuubi and Yondaime's sacrifice to seal her inside him he didn't hate him for it. He respected him even more; he sacrificed himself in order to save his people and keep them safe. The only thing he could possibly have against the blonde Hokage would be that he had never been told why he was chosen to be Kyuubi's container. Looking at his friend he could see that he was expecting Naruto to perhaps attack him because the reason he had Kyuubi in him was inside Arashi. "Good..."

Out of all the responses that Naruto could have given him that was the last one Arashi would have ever thought of. "W-What!?"

"I said good, now when I become Hokage over you, you won't say that it was because I got an edge from Kyuubi!" He said with a joking smirk.

Arashi was speechless, apparently Naruto had accepted it and had no problems with it for some reason. But to make a joke about it just after hearing about it was out of Arashi's comprehension at the moment. Shaking his head to make himself capable of normal thoughts. "Thank you Naruto…" He was about to say more when they heard a knock at the door. "Well that's perfect timing. I guess we're done here, I'd just like to say that it feels so much better to have that out in the open with you. We won't have to hide it around each other." Naruto smiled and nodded to the statement as Arashi dispelled the sound barrier and called for the people to enter.

The door slid open to reveal Kakashi and Hinata standing in the doorway. Seeing Arashi awake, Hinata couldn't hold herself back. "Arashi-kun!" She said in a load voice for Hinata as she ran up and gave him a hug that filled the both of them with the same feeling of warmth that they felt every time they embraced like this. Realizing that she had basically thrown herself on top of Arashi, she leapt back and fell into the chair next to his bed with a blush the color of a tomato.

'That will never get old.' Kakashi thought as he saw Hinata's reaction, he was actually surprised that she didn't faint afterwards. "How are you two feeling?" They both smiled at him telling him that they had never been better. Kakashi could tell that something had happened in the room, there had been a sound barrier in it when they got there and both of them looked like something big had happened. "Well if you two think that you're all good then you can go home." Kakashi said with a masked smile.

"All right! We can get out of this damned hospital! I can't wait to get some Ichiraku's tomorrow!!" Naruto exclaimed as the two boys got up and grabbed their equipment and bracers from the table, but when Kakashi heard Naruto's statement about the next day he cringed and turned to face to door as not to look at them.

Clearing his throat Kakashi got the attention of the two as Hinata took on a sad face knowing what was going to be said. "I'm sorry Naruto but you won't be able to make it to Ichiraku's tomorrow." He said trying not to choke up when he said the next thing, knowing that he was going to crush his students with this knowledge. "Tomorrow at 10 a.m. come to the top of the Hokage tower for the funeral…Sandaime Hokage-sama's funeral."

The look on the boy's faces tore Hinata up; they looked so pained and devoid of happiness as the meaning of the message sunk in. "O-Oji-san…" Arashi said as a lone tear fell to the ground.

"A-Arashi-kun…" Hinata was only able to get that much out before Arashi disappeared in a flash faster than what Hinata could see, knocking Kakashi out of the doorway and on to his butt. He had felt too bad to even try to move out of the way. "Naruto-kun?" She said hoping that he wasn't as devastated as Arashi had been.

Naruto had the same blank expression that Arashi had had, in it Hinata could see that to them it was like a part of them had just been torn from them. Slowly walking out the door with his things in his hand Naruto spoke up. "I-I'll see you tomorrow then Hinata-chan, Kakashi-sensei…"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Elsewhere in an underground fortress deep under a mountain a man overcast in shadows with piercing grey eyes, spiky hair, and a black cloak with red clouds on it sat on a shadowed throne in a large hall. In front of him a blonde haired man with a hairstyle that looked much like the one of the youngest Yamanaka kneeled in a bow while in the same black cloak with red clouds. "Leader-sama, Zetsu had reported in that Orochimaru's invasion failed and resulted in the loss of his ability to use his arms and the death of Konoha's Hokage, yeah."

The shadowed man visibly tensed up and brought his fist down on the chair making it explode from the force of the fist. "Damn that snake! This changes everything for our plans! We should never have let him leave the organization, he's the only one who can do that jutsu. We have to be able to bring Him back in order to bring our plans to fruition!"

"Excuse me Leader-sama, but Zetsu stated in his report that the chakras of Ichibi and Kyuubi were sensed during the time of the invasion. Also that there was a burst of what Zetsu described as a yellow chakra, but that couldn't be possible only He has that chakra. It makes no sense, yeah."

"Zetsu wouldn't make things up on that subject. If it truly was yellow chakra, then not all is lost. This also could make our need of Orochimaru obsolete, and we can seek him out and regain the ring. Deidara, you and Sasori are to seek out Orochimaru and take back the ring he left with and kill him."

"But aren't I supposed to be after Ichibi? Also what of Kyuubi?" The blonde said not quite understanding what his Leader was saying.

"You can put a hold on Ichibi for a while, as for Kyuubi…that Weasel is on his way as we speak to capture it since we now know it is in Konoha." He said as a smile crossed his lips.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was a dark and gloomy morning in Konoha, and it seemed even darker to two blonde haired genin without the smile of their Oji-san. Sitting slumped over and watching the floor boards Naruto had the same devastated expression he had wore the night before when he left the hospital. Looking at the clock he figured that it was time to get up and dressed. Reaching over he slipped into the standard Shinobi funeral attire, black pants with a simple collared black shirt. Looking at himself in the mirror he couldn't see any emotion on his face, it was just blank. Tying his head band around his neck because of the bandages on his face he trudged out the door and headed down the stairs to get Arashi. He had a feeling he was even worse off than he was.

Arashi hadn't slept the night before, he had just laid down on his bed and stared at the ceiling all night. When he heard a knock at his door he knew it was Naruto but didn't move, Naruto had a key, and he would get in anyway. He wasn't surprised when he felt the presence of his blonde friend leaning against his bedroom door. That was when a frown broke Naruto's formerly blank face, just looking at the state Arashi was in broke his heart. "Come on Arashi, we need to go. You know what to wear."

Arashi's mind was as blank as his face was, he didn't know what he was doing, and his body was just acting on its own. Slowly he got up with the same unfocused look in his eyes as he slipped into the black outfit, his legs moving on their own he dragged himself out of his room and out the door with his headband hanging loosely from a loop on his belt. Naruto had never seen anyone like this before, sure he was down but he was also quite possibly the most optimistic person on the planet so he wasn't feeling the way Arashi was. Naruto began to slowly lead Arashi along as it seemed he was simply following one of the last people he considered family.

Stepping out of her door Sakura knew that today would be horrible, just looking at the sky could tell her that. She slowly started her way to the Tower to attend the funeral when she saw Naruto and Arashi trudging slowly along. With a small smile she ran up to them to walk with them and thank Arashi for doing what he did to save her and Sasuke. "Ohayo Arashi-kun, Naruto." She said as she stopped next to them.

"Hey Sakura, if you're here I guess we should find Sasuke." Naruto said to her but Arashi looked like he didn't even notice her presence, to Sakura he looked utterly lost and devoid of any thought or emotion. She felt horrible seeing the state he was in, Naruto was not much better but it wasn't like what Arashi looked like. "Don't bother, he hasn't said a word all day. He's just following me right now, I don't even know if he knows where he's going."

She knew that both of them had no family and had been very close with Sandaime, thinking on it as they walked along slowly she couldn't fathom the feeling they were having to the situation. When her father had died on a mission she had been sad for a long time, but she had also been young enough not to fully understand the situation. Now she was; and knowing the pain she felt then, the pain they were feeling must be unbearable. They had lost someone who was family to them and had gone back closer to being how they were when they were younger…alone.

When they saw Sasuke he stopped and they met up with him. The first thing that caught his attention was Sakura's focus on Arashi, he looked at the blonde and saw a look he hadn't seen in years. It was the same as the one he had hid from everyone after the loss of his clan, outwardly Sasuke didn't do anything. But inside he felt sympathetic to the Himura.

They continued their walk towards the tower until they made the final turn that went to it while the other way lead to the path up to the top of the Hokage monument. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke all took the turn but Arashi continued his slow walk towards the path. "Where's he going? Should we get him Naruto?" Sakura asked seeing the Himura she had come to think of as a good friend continue his path.

"No…he's going to where he goes to think. He's trying to work this out himself, I think being at the funeral would actually be worse for him." He then picked up the slightest hint of lavender in the wind and saw a familiar face slowly following Arashi from in the trees. "Plus, he has all the support he needs following him." He said with the first smile of the day. He regretted that Sasame wasn't with him at the moment, but it was a Shinobi funeral and she wasn't a Konoha Shinobi. With a sigh Naruto turned and followed the Uchiha in front of him to the tower.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kakashi was where he always was in the mornings, at the memorial stone. Looking at the names engraved on it he had his eye locked on the same one he always did. Obito Uchiha. Images of that day were flashing through his head like they did every day, but today they began to change he began thinking about Sarutobi. 'Why…why did I have to lose another person close to me? Could I have done something to prevent this from happening?'

Looking over behind him he saw the form of Jiraiya leaning against the training posts he had planned on tying Naruto to during their bell test. He thought about going over and speaking with the Sannin about the information he had given him the day before but decided against it.

Jiraiya was deep in thought and currently wasn't even aware of Kakashi even being there. 'Old man, I should have come back to Konoha years ago. I'm sorry, if I had been there with you I know we could have taken that damn snake. I know I helped out by getting the evidence that Suna and Oto were going to attack before it happened, but if I had decided to watch the fights instead I would have been sitting next to you in the VIP box. I could have helped! Damn it!! I'm always too late to save those I need to!' Looking up at the clouds Jiraiya had visions of his past mistakes running through his head.

When he gazed at the dark cloud looming over head to him it seemed to materialize into something. But unlike the normal shape of scantily clad women, it changed into the face he had longed to see for years, the face that he would always help, the face he prayed to see just one more time. 'Tsunade…this is just like with you, I'm so sorry. Just like with Nawaki, I wasn't in the place I needed to be to save him. Like I wasn't in the right place to save Sensei.' Looking back down at the ground he could feel the tears falling down his face following his tattoos.

Kakashi had long since turned his attention back to the stone and didn't see Jiraiya's actions, but the women behind him with a bouquet of white flowers did. She was in the black funeral garb of the Shinobi and her deep purple hair moved gracefully in the movement of the wind as her other hand was intertwined with her coughing boyfriend. "Are you here for her, Yugao?" Kakashi said, knowing who was behind him.

"She is my sister after all, and I suspect you are here for Obito-san? Also you still refuse to speak her name?" She said gaining a confused look from Hayate.

"I can't say it, if I do I'm overwhelmed with memories. I just can't do it." The silver haired man said as he continued to stare at the name on the stone. Without saying a word Yugao let go of Hayate and went up beside Kakashi as she laid down the flowers for her sister and did a small prayer. "You know you should come here earlier so that you're not always making up bad excuses when you're late Kakashi-senpai."

With a solemn look he tore his gaze from the stone and looked softly at what could have been his sister-in-law. "I do…early in the morning. But when I come here, I feel like punishing my old foolish self. I look at his name and just can't bring myself to leave, knowing I'm the reason he died, it should have been me and not him that died." He stared at the name engraved on it for a second longer, he then felt a hand on his shoulder and knew that she still thought of him as a brother. "We should get going, the funeral is going to start soon."

"It's not like you to want to be early Kakashi-senpai."

"Well you see if I'm late for something my team is a part of some valuable information of mine could be released to public knowledge by a certain blonde boy in orange. But now that really doesn't seem to matter to me." He said with a glance back at the name on the stone, then his gaze drifted down to the other name he didn't want to remember. Seeing the name he couldn't hold it back anymore, the ever calm Kakashi let a single tear fall from his exposed eye. Yugao could plainly see what he was looking at, and knew that just the sight of her name must still tear him apart. "I-I have a girlfriend now…that's the information…its Anko." He said calmly as he looked up into the sky and regained his composer.

"That's very good, I hope you're finally getting over her. By the way…" She said while she raised up her hand to show the Copy Ninja the ring on her finger. "We're engaged." She said happily as she showed off her favorite new possession.

Kakashi looked back to see a smiling Hayate as he coughed. He could only smile at the happy couple. "I'm glad…I'm sure Rin would be very happy." He said making the other two gasp at the fact he had just said her name and not break down like he had the last time they heard him say it. "Now let's go, I don't want Naruto blabbing to everyone there." In a poof of smoke they all left the area leaving only Jiraiya to sit there deep in thought, but with a smile after hearing Kakashi say her name.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto had taken a spot right next to Konohamaru and Iruka on the front row of the gathering of Shinobi. In front of them was a display set up with pictures of those who died in the invasion and two lamps of fire on either side. Directly in front of everyone were Sarutobi's teammates from when he was younger, they were now on the village council and were temporarily running the village until some things were cleared up.

Everyone Naruto knew was there, even Kakashi had shown up at the last second with a purple haired woman and the coughing proctor from the third exam. They were all there and they all looked sad, but none of them looked even remotely the way Arashi had. Naruto could see Sakura standing next to Sasuke looking up at the Hokage faces before them. Ino was latched onto Chouji's arm while his shirt hung loosely on him due to the fat he had lost since he was first given the shirt. Neji was standing with the rest of the Hyuugas, Lee and TenTen were standing with Gai who was already bawling. Shikamaru was with his father and the rest of the older Ino-Shika-Cho team, and Kiba and Shino were next to some people he didn't now. Also Kurenai was standing next to Asuma, who hadn't smoked once that day to Naruto's surprise. The only people missing were Jiraiya, Arashi, and Hinata.

It was then that the dark clouds that loomed overhead finally released the rain it had been threatening all day. Feeling it Kurenai commented on it as she looked up at the sky. "Yes, the sky is crying too…" He said welcoming it was a way to hide the tears falling from his eyes as he thought how he could now never properly introduce his girlfriend to his father.

Looking up at the stone faces before him Naruto could barely see the slumped figure of his best friend nearing the top of the stair path leading up to them. He still couldn't hold back a smile when he saw the form of Hinata jump out from a tree and onto the top of the monument and hide in a tree on top.

"We will now begin the funeral for Sandaime Hokage-sama, who lost his life in this battle as well as the other brave Shinobi who fought to protect this village. Let us begin." One of the two in front of Naruto said as everyone formed a line as they held onto their white flowers to lay in front of Sandaime's picture.

As everyone went along Naruto could see their looks of sadness as they thought back to a memory that Sandaime had given them. Naruto was having a hard time holding back the tears he knew he had waiting, but the silence of the occasion wasn't helping him, it only made the memories come faster. He thought back to the day he and Arashi were trained in secret by him, just the two of them standing right where he was overlooking the village, going to Ichiraku with his Oji-san. He was about to break when he suddenly heard a scream of pain like he had never heard before, a scream that was releasing all of the pain and despair bottled up within a person. Everyone heard it and whoever had heard Arashi speak knew it was him, the voice undeniably his. Naruto could feel his pain through that scream and a tear finally fell from his eyes. But not for him…for his best friend.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" Arashi screamed out as he finally broke and released everything that had refused to come though since he heard of Oji-san's death. Screaming until he had no air left in his lungs he fell to his knees and punched into the rock below him as he began to cry like a small child. Weeping into his hands he screamed to the heavens in pain as Yondaime was desperately trying to calm the boy down. "WHYYYYYYY!!?!?!?! WHY OJI-SAN??" He felt like he was on fire, in fact he was surrounded by the yellow chakra of Yondaime so as to heal him as he continued to beat his fists into the rock of the monument.

Hinata had never seen such a release of bottled up pain as what she was seeing from Arashi, she felt horrible. She could have been there sooner for him, she could have told him how she felt so she could be there for him and take his pain away. But she could only watch as he wept harshly and yelled out in pain, a bright yellow chakra then surrounded him causing Hinata to gasp and almost give away her position. Arashi simply continued to cry for several minutes until he finally stopped.

Struggling to get up Arashi finally had poured out all of the feelings of loss and had cleared his mind. Looking out over the village Arashi calmed himself as he felt himself regaining his composure and thoughts. Feeling a familiar charka behind him he could only smile his first smile the entire day. 'It's now or never…'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The screaming had stopped and everyone went back to the procession, they were in to lay their flower before Sandaime's picture. Looking over Naruto could see Konohamaru crying into his sleeve. 'Why…why did Oji-san have to die?' Taking another look at Konohamaru Naruto could feel bad for his little follower, Iruka saw it as well and reached down and pulled the little boy into a loving hug, letting him cry into the Chunin's shoulder. Iruka could see himself in Konohamaru and the memories of what happened to him ran through his head.

_A young Iruka was standing by himself in front of the Memorial Stone as he cried and looked at the names of his parents. "It's been a year" The voice of Sarutobi behind him took Iruka by surprise as he turned to look at the aged Hokage. "It is not easy to hide your sadness and laugh, is it? I have heard from your teachers that you are always at the center of the laughter."_

"_I'm not sad!" Iruka yelled trying to convince himself. "It's an honor for a ninja to die during a mission! Otou-san and Kaa-san protected this village from the Kyuubi with their lives…They're Heroes! And I'm the child of those Heroes! I'm not sad, even if I am alone…these are tears of joy." He said as he trembled._

"_You can stop now." Sandaime said as he reached forward and brought the young Iruka into a loving hug to take the pain away. "I know that you always hugged your knees while you cry…but you are not alone." Releasing the boy but holding onto his shoulders he continued while looking into Iruka's eyes. "All of the Shinobi in Konoha have a Will of Fire"_

"_A Will of Fire?"_

"_The strong will to protect Konoha. As long as they have that Will of Fire, everyone in this village is family. Do you have it Iruka?"_

_Iruka then smiled as his tears dried off. "Hai."_

'A ninja mustn't show his emotions in any situation.' Naruto recited the rule that he had been taught at the academy as he stood in line waiting for the other rookies in front of him to lay their flowers before Sarutobi. 'A ninja must prioritize his mission first and must not show any tears.' He watched as every one of his friends walked before the smiling picture of Sandaime and with sad faces they laid their flower down as they all remembered an important memory they had shared with him. When Naruto stepped up and looked down at the picture before him he couldn't keep the memories out of his mind. He remembered all the times he had been taken out for ramen by Sandaime, the first time he got him with his Sexy Jutsu, a time when he, Arashi, and Oji-san had just been standing up on the room of the Hokage Tower just to look out over the village that they would be fighting for to protect, the day after they became Genin when he and Arashi had given Sandaime their green goggles as a present for helping them out so much.

Closing his eyes with a smile he looked up and saw the looming stone face of his Oji-san, turning around he made his way back to his spot next to the still crying Konohamaru and the comforting Iruka as it felt the rain had come to a stop. Now staring at the face on the monument he just couldn't fully understand something. "Iruka-sensei…" He said softly as Konohamaru sniffled onto his sleeve and looked up at his boss. "Why do people risk their lives for others?"

Remembering what Sandaime had done for him, Iruka took it upon himself to comfort him as Sarutobi had done for him. "When one person dies…he disappears…along with his past, current life, and his future. Many people die in missions and wars, they die easily and in surprisingly simple ways. Hayate could have been one of them, but he fought hard and struggled to survive for those he loves. Those who die have goals and dreams. But everyone has something as important as those; parents, siblings, friends, lovers…people who are important and precious to you. They trust and help each other, and there is a bond between people important to you ever since birth…and the string that binds them to you becomes thicker and stronger as time goes on. It's beyond reason, but those bound to you by that string will do that. Because it's important…"

Taking it all in Naruto could only agree with what his old sensei had said. "Yes…I think I understand, somewhat." Looking back up at the picture looking at all of them he sighed. "But…it's painful when someone dies."

Behind him Naruto could clearly hear Kakashi speak up after hearing what Iruka had told him. "I think we all heard just how painful it can be. But Hokage-sama didn't die for nothing. He left something important in all of us. You'll find out just what eventually…"

With a smile Naruto knew what he was talking about. "Yeah, I think I understand that too…"

With happy memories of Sarutobi still in her head Sakura noticed the rain and turned to Sasuke next to her. "Well the rain has stopped." Sasuke had been deep in thought as well but heard her and looked up. The dark clouds seemed to dissolve into a beautiful sunny blue sky. The funeral had finished and everyone made their way to leave, Sasuke and Sakura had stopped for a second and saw Naruto bidding Iruka a wave goodbye before he came jogging over to them with a foxy grin on his face. "Ja ne, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto said as he turned and followed the friends from Team 8.

Looking at Naruto's smiling face and the look on the other genin's faces brought a smile to Iruka's face. 'It seems like the small leaves in Konohagakure no Sato…have inherited that Will of Fire you spoke of Sandaime. The fire on the leaves will eventually burn greater and stronger and it will flash its light and protect this village' Looking up at the faces behind him he could only imagine how it would look with the face of either one of his two favorite students. 'After becoming the new Hokage, one day….' Iruka then turned his gaze to many of the other students that he had once had and saw the same look that he had seen in Naruto's smiling face. 'Their desire to protect the village and everyone in it will only grow…like it did in me.'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Looking out over the village Arashi welcomed the peaceful blue sky that had appeared after the dark clouds that seemed to correspond with his sadness left. Once he had let out of the pain he had felt before he regained his thinking abilities and he could hear Yondaime again too. Looking down he had watched the funeral end and everyone begin to leave with their friends and family. He had distinctly saw Iruka look up at where he was standing with a big smile, seeing that the people below cared for him only managed to further the smile that had appeared on his face. **"So you brought the container issue up to Naruto and was accepted, you have come to terms with Sandaime-sama's death, and you are back to your happy self. Seems like there is only one issue that still needs to be taken care of…and from your thoughts it's the biggest one. You do know…"**

'Yeah I know…now butt out I have to do this.' Feeling the connection cut as Yondaime actually respected his wishes to be alone for what he was about to do.

Hinata had stayed and watched the entire time from in the cover of the closest tree she could find that would keep her out of sight from her love. She was feeling much better now that it looked like Arashi had calmed down and was now even sporting a smile as he looked over the edge of the monument. She had to fight the urge to whimper as the sight of his smile right then, it made her feel like she would melt if he was to beam it at her. She then observed as Arashi looked up at the clear blue sky as he sighed.

Focusing on the lone hawk flying over Konoha Arashi let out a small sigh he was sure his dark haired team mate would see. "You can come out Hina-chan…I know you're there." He said with a large smile spread across his face. When she heard him call out to her she just about fell from the branch she was from shock, but timidly she climbed down and slowly walked forward into the open blushing deeply at getting caught watching him. "You've watched me for quite a long time haven't you…?" She blushed even deeper hearing that he knew that she had watched him before. "You have always cared so much; it's just how you are. Just like Oji-san and Naruto, you always put others above yourself, hell I'm the same way."

She continued to creep closer hanging on every word that came out of Arashi's mouth, did he know how she felt? She figured that he didn't and thought he was talking about something else.

"You've always been there for me, no matter what you have been there. Even today, when I'm sure you wanted to attend the funeral you instead chose to follow me and make sure I would be okay. It wouldn't matter what it was, you would do anything you could to help someone out if they needed help. You have no idea how much just feeling your presence watching me helped me out earlier." Turning around he looked deep into her now teary eyes from the things he was saying about her. "Hina-chan, you truly are an amazing and wonderful person and I don't care if your father doesn't see it…I do. I'm lucky to have you in my life Hina-chan."

She was fighting as hard as she could not to faint after she heard him say he was lucky to have her in his life, she had always thought of it the other way around. Now was her chance, she had to tell him. Even if she died of a heart attack afterwards or if he rejected her she had to let him know. After seeing how he had been after losing Sandaime she had made up her mind that no matter what she would tell him. With a furious blush she continued to look into the piercing cerulean eyes of her love. "A-Arigato Arashi-kun…Demo, I have s-something I have to t-tell you…I-I…I…"

She was silenced by Arashi placing his index finger over her lips while inwardly he was lost at the softness that he desired to capture with his own lips. Summoning all of the courage inside of him he gulped and spoke up in a soothing voice that melted Hinata. "No…I know what you're going to say Hina-chan, and I can't let you say it…"

She instantly looked down in shame; she hadn't even said it and he had already rejected her. She felt the tears come streaking down her face but was stopped when she felt his thumb whip them away gently and lift her head up while softly holding onto her chin. Looking up into his eyes she didn't see rejection or even indifference, she saw what she had always wanted to see…acceptance.

"As I was saying, I can't let you say it…" He sighed as he forced himself continue on with what he was saying. "Do you remember the first time we saw each other…I had just finished training with Oji-san and happened to glance into Ichiraku and caught a glimpse of a little shy Hyuuga girl who smiled and waved at me. The only thing that crossed my mind when I saw you was the word 'beautiful'." Hinata was wide eyed and fully enthralled in what he was saying even to respond. "We have spent so much time with each other and have become very close, I remember when we were training in the forest in Wave and we talked about your family. You got sad and began to cry, not knowing what to do I reached out and did this." He reached out and brought her into an embrace that filed the both of them with the same warmth they always felt when like that. "I did that and did my best to help you out, do you remember that?"

How could she not, that was the day she figured out that she loved him, also it was the closest she had ever been to him. "H-Hai." She said with a smile thinking back on the day.

"Well when that happened I experienced something…a warmth that I had never felt before. But when we let go of each other it was gone and left me colder than I had been. Like right now, I'm feeling that incredible warmth just by having you in my arms." Letting go he stepped back much to Hinata's secret protest, but she continued to listen on. "But letting go I'm cold again, it took me a while but I figured out what it was and why I felt this cold. This brings me back to why I said I couldn't let you say it…it's because I couldn't let you say it until I did…" Hinata gasped and stared at the blonde in front of her. "It's something Naruto told me a while back. "A man should be the one to say it first." So here I go…" Stepping forward he grabbed onto Hinata's hands as tears streamed down her face. "Hina-chan…I love you, I love you with all my heart and I think I have since I first saw you." He said with a smile that beamed happiness and love.

Letting go of his hands Hinata threw her hands around him and nuzzled her head into the crook of his neck while sobbing tears of joy. "I love you too Arashi-kun! I love you so much!" She said not stuttering as she wet his jacket with her tears. 'You'll never be alone ever again…" She said little more than a whisper, but he heard it and smiled as a few tears of joy fell from his eyes as well.

Lifting up her head to look at his he smiled widely as he looked deep into her white eyes that held the slightest hint of lavender and saw the love he had always desired, even more than Hokage. "Hina-chan, I'm the luckiest person in the world…" With a blush he inched forward as he shut his eyes and felt the warmth of their embrace increase tenfold as their lips lightly met in their first kiss. After what felt like hours to the two they broke it and looked deep into each other's eyes reflecting on just what had happened. "Hina-chan…I know this probably sounds really corny…but will you b-be my girlfriend?"

Latching onto him in another love filed hug he smiled. "Hai." She said as more tears came out making a wet spot of Arashi's jacket. "Anou, last time we were up her you said there were other things on your mind, was this that?"

"Caught red-handed! But I do like this new non-stuttering Hina-chan" He said playfully as he turned and wrapped his arm over her shoulder gaining a blush from his new girlfriend. 'Good, she still blushes. She always looks so cute when she does that." He thought as they turned to make their way back down into the village to see Naruto and tell him the good news.

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The sound of a single bell could be heard coming from two cloaked figures looking over Konoha from the protective wall of the village. They wore black cloaks with red clouds along with straw hats with white attachments on it effectively hiding their faces. The taller one of them also had a huge sword strapped to his back that was wrapped up in white bandages and had a pommel in the shape of a skull. "They were able to avoid complete destruction, but it looks like the damage was great" The one with the sword said smugly.

"The village that prospered like no other…has become pitiful" The shorter one retorted.

"Well that's out of character for you. So even a person like you has some attachment to his home village."

"No…I don't" He said as he raised his gaze from under the large hat to scan the village with his piercing three tomed Sharingan eyes.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**YAY!! I finally got a new computer after my old one died! 1****st**** I would like to say SORRY! SORRY!!! I'm so sorry it took so long for this one but 1) I had no compy for over a week. 2) It was a very important chapter and I wanted to make it as perfect as I could.**

**Well I really hope everyone loves this chapter and what I did with it. HURAY for Arashi and Hinata finally getting together!!**

**So review all of you, if you read this and like it…review!! Even if it's just like two words you should review!**

**Also I would like to tell everyone to go and read my second fanfic "Strength of a Raging Fire" and review on that.**

**OK I'm going to be working on the next chapter tomorrow so it's possible it might be up Sunday night but maybe Monday!! Ja ne!**


	20. The Search for the Slug Begins!

**Review Reply:**

**Artimis-kibasgirgriend: **Yes I agree, I'm glad that I can finally have Arashi and Hinata together, I wanted to do it a while ago but other aspects of the story were more demanding and I wanted it to be a better lead up to it rather than the instant relationships that form in some fics. Also I think that the Sasame Naruto thing is good, remember I m a huge Naruhina fan but since my OC is with Hinata I used Sasame b/c she was a filler character that Naruto seemed to have a crush on after he had met her and it left open many things for her. But as for Sasuke…well I'm having some major plans in my head about him, hehehe. (Rubs hands evilly)

**Chosha Kurenai: **That would be awesome if someone would make a fanart for my fic it would really show me people liked it! Oh well, I guess it would be hard b/c of the descriptions of Arashi. If someone were to wait until after the time skip then the new description would work I guess.

**Static44: **Yeah I'm trying my best to make it feel like canon, and you're the first one to comment of how Hayate is still alive. I've thought up some things for him, haha. You all will just have to wait and see.

**Kazuma Watanabe: **Yes it's sad that Sarutobi had to die, I considered keeping him alive but couldn't find a way to do it without sacrificing the character development that comes from his death and the need to find Tsunade after it. I really wanted to keep him but it wasn't possible, unless Tsunade showed up one day and was all OOC 'Hey I'd love to take Hokage off your hands Sensei!' So for the betterment of the story I had to kill him.

**Wingsofeagle: **Thanks for the support! Keep the reviews coming!

**CrimsonCat101:** Thanks for the compliment. There will be things that happen later between the boys.

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto.

Sorry about the long update, I have exams and have to study. I've been really busy with finding a job for the summer and getting an apartment I haven't been able to sit down and write like I would like too. But I did finally break the 100 review barrier, I hope it will bring more people in and they will review!! I love reviews and love replying to them, so REVIEW PEOPLE!!

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The Sun had risen over Konoha to reveal that a thick fog had settled over the village. Compared to previous day of mourning this day to most of the citizens of the village was one of new starts, reconstruction was well on its way but this fog brought about an uneasy foreboding feeling in most of the residence. But outside the wall of the village at one of the small entry gates, a lone Chunin was on guard as he heard a faint sound of a small bell. Looking hard into the mist he saw two figures approaching slowly. One had a large sword strapped to his back while the other had no distinguishing features, they both had black cloaks with red clouds on them and large straw hats that covered their faces. As they made their way up to the open gate, the Chunin noticed they weren't stopping. "Excuse me…" Was all he was able to say before the shorter one leaned his head up and gazed at him with swirling red eyes that seemed to put him in a deep sleep. Slumping over the Chunin couldn't do anything as the two continued their way into the recovering village.

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Elsewhere a shadowy figure in a black body condom was seething on the roof of the Academy after his little trip to the Konoha library. Sasuke had gone there early in the morning and skipped his normal training routine to do a little research on something that was bothering him. Thinking back to when he saw Arashi with the Sharingan he had also remembered his fight with Lee before the first exam of the Chunin Exams that he had seen a flicker of what looked like Sharingan in Arashi's eyes.

Sasuke had tried to pull the information out of Naruto after the funeral but was very unsuccessful. So when he got to the library earlier that day he had asked him they had any information on the Himura clan.

"_The Himura? Let's see here…" The elderly librarian said thinking over their stocks as Sasuke was getting impatient. "Ah yes, we do have one book on them. They were such a secretive clan with their inner working, not like you Uchiha. We have entire shelves filled with information on you!"_

_Handing him the book Sasuke took it and silently walked over to a nearby table and opened it up. 'The Himura Clan for Dummies…they really seem to want to piss someone off with a title like that!' Opening it up he quickly read the introduction and deduced that it told him nothing of value. Reading more into it he found that most of the book was a family tree and where their clan house was. Sasuke was surprised when he saw that Arashi's parents were none other than the Heads of the clan._

'_Sano Himura: Jonin of Konoha and Leader of the Himura clan. Specialties include being a master in taijutsu, Wolf summons, incredible stamina and chakra capacity, and excelled in earth jutsu. As a Jonin he took on a genin team and most notably his prize student was Maito Gai.' Sasuke's eyebrows rose reading about Gai-sensei. 'But he was most well known within his clan for being the closest one in three generations to activate his Kekkei Genkai. Like the rest of his clan he died in the Kyuubi attack.' Now Sasuke was intrigued, he hadn't known that they had a Kekkei Genkai, but continued reading._

'_Kenshi Himura: Jonin of Konoha and wife of the Leader of the Himura Clan. Specialties include genjutsu and weaponry. Especially feared in kenjutsu with a katana, most well known for her squad though. She trained under the Legendary Sannin Jiraiya with the later Head of the Hyuuga clan Hiashi Hyuuga, and the future Yondaime Hokage.' Sasuke was really taken back by the fact that Arashi's mother had been on a team with Yondaime and Hinata's father. 'Unlike entirety of her clan she did not die in the Kyuubi attack; instead she died because of child birth after giving birth to her son, Arashi Himura. He is now the last living Himura.'_

_Sasuke scanned the book for any more information on Arashi but found nothing. It appeared as if he was just a passing reference. He flipped the book until he got to the last page and he found what he was looking for. 'The Shekkeigan: the very rare Kekkei Genkai of the Himura Clan. It has the ability to let the user use jutsu without the use of hand signs. Also it can act like the Sharingan of the Uchiha and copy things, but the difference is that it doesn't copy jutsu. It has the ability to copy the abilities of any other Kekkei Genkai active around them when the Shekkeigan is active. The user can then use the copied Kekkei Genkai as if it was their own. The only documented case was three generations ago when a Himura copied a Hyuuga's Byakugan and successfully preformed the __Hakke Rokujūyon Shō.'_

"_WHAT!!" Sasuke actually yelled out loud before storming out of the library after giving the book back and headed for the roof of the Academy._

Sitting on the roof he couldn't help but feel cheated, like his work to gain his Sharingan had been wasted when it had simply been copied by Arashi and used like a simple jutsu. The pride of the Uchiha had been reduced to something to be easily used by another clan. Looking up he saw a lone hawk flying overhead. "That's Kakashi's messenger hawk, what could he possibly want with me? I thought the training with him was done…" He said as he jumped away to find the ever late Jonin.

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Naruto and Arashi had just finished their morning training and were both sitting on the ground leaning their backs against one another while catching their breath. The area around them was covered in training dummies with targets on them that had dozens of shuriken and kunai lodged in them as well as some smoking holes accompanied by electrical burns. Getting up the two boys dashed off for a much needed lunch at Ichiraku's with smiled on their faces. But unknown to them overhead standing on a building were the two cloaked figures watching them intently. "So who's the other brat? It'll be hard to get him with other people around him." Said the larger one of the two.

"His name is Arashi Himura, son of Sano and Kenshi…the last of the Himura. He and our little Naruto-kun have been inseparable as long as I can remember. He could be a nuisance…"

"Son of Kenshi!?" He then grinned evilly showing off his sharp pointed teeth and blue skin. "Good…I've got a score I can settle on him. That bitch single handedly killed off four of the Shinobi Swordsmen, leaving only me, Zabuza, and that fool Raiga." They both then seemed to fade away into the disappearing mist that still lingered around the village.

Below Arashi sneezed hard while he and his orange clad friend high tailed it to Ichiraku's after meeting up with Konohamaru and gazing up at Sandaime's face with him. "It looks like someone's talking about you Arashi! Could it be Hinata-chan?"

"Shut up Naruto, don't tell me you actually believe that…plus why would Hina-chan be talking about me?" Arashi said confused as they stepped into the Ramen Shop and took out their coupons. He could only shake his head in shame as Naruto desperately went through every one of his pockets to find his coupon. "Baka, you put it behind your forehead protector! I'm just glad I said that before you started taking off cloths!"

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Deep within a forest and an underground hideout Orochimaru sat doubled over in pain while sitting in a dark room surrounded by candles and bottles filled with organs and odd looking snakes. Since getting back to one of his hideouts Orochimaru had been filled with a never ending pain that burned deeply in his arms. "Damn that Sarutobi!"

Standing before him was the spectacled Kabuto. "The task was not easy after all. You fought the person who was praised as being the strongest of the five Kages, the Hokage. You did very well and managed to kill two out of the five."

He was suddenly hit with a wave of massive killing intent. "Don't...Don't try to patronize me. I'll kill you!"

But despite being threatened by one of the Sannin, Kabuto kept his cool and calmly replied. "I had no intention of doing so, it's true we didn't capture the village but you have become closer in your other goal. Sasuke Uchiha though, we were able to put a collar on him and he will come to you."

He was met with a sickening laugh from his master. "But I had to sacrifice these arms and all of my jutsu to do it. If I could've gotten a hold of Itachi Uchiha to begin with, there would have been no problems. But that is an impossible dream now…he is stronger than me! That's why…I left that organization!" He said gazing over to the shriveled form of a hand with an odd ring still on its pinky finger. "Speaking of them…they no doubt had spies watching my every move in Konoha and saw that I could not summon Him with Edo Tensei. If so, I am of no use to them any longer and they will no doubt attempt to kill me and retake their ring. We need to be on high alert and switch bases every week so they don't find us. Make sure we don't go to any that Sasori that damned scorpion knows about, I'm sure they'll send him."

"Hai, Orochimaru-sama!" Kabuto said before he left to make the orders to the remaining Oto Nin with them.

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"Oh yeah this is a perfect shot! Konoha always had the hottest babes!" The white haired toad summoner squealed in joy as he peeped into a nearby Onsen.

"You still do those foolish things?" A voice behind Jiraiya said making him stand up to address them.

"I'm collecting data after all, Homura-oji-sensei and Koharu-sensei." He said with a smirk as he turned to face them. But the smirk was whipped from his face as he met gazes with the two behind him. "What do the advisors want from me?"

Homura spoke up in the same annoyed tone he always used with Jiraiya. "What do we want? You should already know that without us telling you." Standing up from his peeping crouch Jiraiya faced them both with a stern and serious look, but then cracked into the usual playful smirk he wore the majority of the time.

"You don't have to look so serious. The talks with Suna went well, right?"

The deep voice of Homura responded with a hint of agitation. "Yes, Suna has publicly stated that Orochimaru set them up. Also, they have surrendered to Konoha…so that topic is no longer relevant."

His female partner then spoke up to take over where Homura left off. "Konoha has no choice other than to accept their surrender in order for us to revive our power. But Konoha's power has declined enormously. In this situation, we must prioritize preparations for worse situations. We do not know when a neighboring nation may do something radical. So, until the village's power is restored, we have decided to gather the top people from each squad and assemble an emergency executive committee to deal with this problem. But first…" Jiraiya stared the old woman down knowing what was to come next and not liking it at all. "We need a trustworthy and strong leader. There are many problems, and not just Orochimaru."

"You didn't have to waste your time reporting such things to me; I do have my sources you know." He said trying to get out of where the conversation was going.

But before he could get back to his research Homura spoke up. "Let me tell you one thing that everyone has agreed on; we need a Godaime Hokage as soon as possible. And just yesterday, at the emergency meeting with the Fire Country's Daimyo…Jiraiya, you were chosen!"

Turning back around with a glare he stared intently at them both. "Unfortunately, I'm not Hokage material."

"It has already been decided. Also, if you, the ninja praised as one of the Sannin are not suited for this, then who is?"

With a grin he held up three fingers at the council members. "There's one other Sanin…Tsunade."

Both of the others looked at each other questioningly. "It's true that she may be capable, but we have no idea where she is."

"Leave that up to me, and don't worry I'm not going to leave I think it's time I came back for good." He said with a smirk.

After a moment of thinking the two spoke up. "Very well, we will allow you to go search for Tsunade and bring her back to be Godaime Hokage. A squad of ANBU will accompany you…"

But before he could say anything else Jiraiya interrupted with a laugh and a wag of his finger at her. "No ANBU, but I have two people I would like to bring along…I've found two very interesting eggs." He said with a sly grin.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Standing calmly outside the Dango shop Kakashi was reading his book once again when he noticed Asuma and Kurenai walking towards him. "Well you two sure look like an adorable couple…"

"Baka, you know full well that we are going out, you don't have to make a scene every time you see us together. Also, what are you doing at the Dango shop…getting Anko something?" Kurenai asked gaining a questioning eyebrow raise from Asuma and a panicked look from Kakashi who was lucky his mask hid his reaction.

"Yeah, what are you doing here?" Asuma said as he saw an odd look cross Kakashi's face as he peered into the shop.

"Well, I came to buy an offering, and I'm meeting someone here." Looking in he could see two cloaked figures sipping their tea under large straw hats. "Sasuke, that is." One of the two twitched at the mention of that name.

Both of the other Jonin saw the reaction and thought something could be up. "Really, it's unusual for you to wait for someone, and Kurenai's student no less. I thought you couldn't stand that Uchiha. Is the offering for Obito?" Asuma said gaining another twitch from the cloaked man.

"Obito?"

"Perhaps something like that…" The copy Ninja stated while keeping his exposed eye looking inside the shop.

Walking up a confused Sasuke saw that the Jonin seemed to be having some sort of meeting. "Kakashi? I heard that it's rare for you to be the first one somewhere."

"Oh, I do it from time to time; you shouldn't get you information on me from Naruto though…" Sasuke was even more confused when he looked where everyone else was and noticed nothing but a plate of Dango and two half drank cups of tea.

"I don't like sweets though; maybe you should have gotten some information on me." Sasuke said trying to look cool but was flat out ignored by the Jonin. Kakashi simply nodded to the other two as they leapt off somewhere that was none of Sasuke's concern.

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The two cloaked figures had quickly gotten out of the shop when the young Uchiha had shown up and had fled to the outskirts of the village next to where there was a large stream running alongside them. Walking along they were trying to look inconspicuous while they searched for their target once more. But unfortunately they both stopped and looked ahead of them to see Asuma and Kurenai staring them down. "You're not from this village, are you? Why did you come here?" The son of the recently deceased Hokage asked.

The shorter one spoke up in an uninterested tone. "It's been a while, Asuma-san and Kurenai-san."

"If you now us then you must be a former ninja of this village." As he said that the shorter one slowly reached up and lifted his hat up to stare at the two with his Sharingan blazing. "Y-You're…" Pulling the hat down and off his head, he revealed his whole face to them; also he used his left arm to open the cloak half way and rested his arm on it letting it dangle out of it. "Then there's no doubt about it…" Asuma said with a smile. "Itachi Uchiha."

"You know these people Itachi-san?" The other one said making sure he wasn't forgotten, while he too reached up and removed his hat. "Then I should introduce myself, too…Kisame Hoshigaki." They both looked at the man and were somewhat taken back by his features, he had tall spiked dark blue hair, pale blue skin, pointed teeth, and what looked like odd gill like things under each of his eyes. "Nice to make your acquaintance."

"We're not making acquaintances, we're going to eliminate you two right here and now!" Asuma said as he took in a drag of his cigarette.

"It looks like you're hated in this village just like in mine Itachi-san."

"I know you also…" Kurenai said after recognizing Kisame. "Kisame Hoshigaki, former Mist Village Shinobi and one of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen and known as the Scourge of the Hidden Mist. You're a renegade ninja wanted by numerous countries, including the Country of Water, for assassinating the Daimyo and sabotage, as well as various other crimes…you both are S-ranked felons in the Bingo Book."

"Itachi, you came back to this village after what you pulled…you've got a lot of guts doing that!"

Itachi only looked at them with his ever unemotional gaze as they glared at him. "Asuma-san, Kurenai-san…Please don't get involved with my work. I have no intention of killing you."

Asuma seemed to growl at Itachi as he scowled at him. "That's not something that a guy who killed his own clan members can say. I know that you wouldn't come here without reason, so why are you here?" Itachi only stared at him blankly as Kisame calmly reached up and grasped the handle of the huge sword strapped to his back and lightning fast swung it into the ground making destroyed cement fly into the air from the small crater it made.

"This person sure is annoying, shall I kill him?"

Itachi responded without parting his gaze from the two dating Jonin. "It looks like we cannot continue our search or leave this village without a fight…but don't overdo it. Your moves stand out too much." Kisame could only smile at the aspect of having some fun, with his toothy grin he brought the massive sword to rest on his shoulder as he glared at Asuma while Itachi's gaze shifter towards Kurenai as he tossed his hat aside. As the hat hit the ground Kisame swung his sword down at Asuma with force, luckily Asuma side stepped and avoided the blow and jumped back as his blue enemy brought the sword back up for another strike. Quickly he reached back and whipped out his trench blades as Kisame slammed the sword down on him. Catching it with his blades Asuma struggled hard to keep it at bay.

As her boyfriend kept the shark-like man at bay Kurenai jumped back and went into a sequence of hand signs. 'Genjutsu?' Itachi thought as he saw the woman's body warp away as if the wind was blowing it away, with focus he watched her with his Sharingan eyes intently.

'I can't believe I'm being overpowered by just the tip of his sword…this guy is strong!'

But despite his efforts Asuma felt the sword being pressed down against his shoulder. "My big blade, Samahada…it doesn't cut like a normal blade…" He suddenly pulled the sword back hard as it ripped into Asuma's arm causing him to groan in pain as blood spurted out of the fresh wound. "…It shaves!!" He said showing the blade underneath the wrappings to look like razor sharp scales instead of a big blade. Itachi had just stood by and watched the whole thing but as soon as it was over his didn't fail to notice the distortion of the scenery slip behind him and Kisame.

Suddenly Kisame realized that he was being held down by something, looking down he saw that roots of a tree were growing rapidly around him and Itachi. Suddenly a large tree sprouted out of the ground behind Itachi and wrapped him up cutting off his movements. But despite the threats the lack of movement caused by the appearance of the tree, Itachi didn't seem fazed by it at all, looking up with cold eyes he saw the form of Kurenai come out of the tree with a kunai drawn. "It ends now!" She said as she moved to stab the murderer in the neck. But with the first sign of emotion Itachi smirked and Kurenai suddenly found herself trapped in the exact genjutsu she had used on them.

"A Genjutsu of this level won't work on me." He said with the same monotonous tone he used.

'This is…a genjutsu counter!' She thought as she saw him pull out a kunai that poked out of the arms of his large cloak and swing to end her life. Seeing that she concentrated and bit her lip hard, drawing blood. The pain caused by her action broke her out of the genjutsu and she managed to duck under the kunai at the expense of a few hairs. Despite her dodge Itachi was as calm as ever he simply planted a hard kick to her chest that sent her flying back into the middle of the stream.

"Kurenai-chan!!" Asuma yelled out as he watched his girlfriend narrowly escape death. But was silenced when he noticed that Kisame had been freed from the genjutsu holding him down.

The resident genjutsu master of Konoha shakily rose up to kneel after regaining her hold on the water's surface. "That was pretty nice Kurenai-san." She heard the cold voice of Itachi say behind her. "But…"

"But this is it…" A voice said behind him making Itachi slightly agitated that he had been interrupted. Looking behind him Itachi could see barely see a man in Jonin attire with what looked like silver hair.

Back with Asuma he was doing his best to dodge the strong sweeps of Samahada that Kisame was throwing. Seeing an opening Asuma dashed in and swept by his enemy barely missing his cheek with his trench knives. Kisame was shocked when he felt a gash open up on his cheek despite him not getting hit with the blade. Looking back he clearly saw that at the edge of the blades Asuma's chakra extended to form longer blades of chakra at the ends of the knives. Deciding that it was time to end it, Kisame went into a long sequence of hand signs. "Suiton…" He said as a vortex of water formed behind him pointing at Asuma. "Water Shark Missile!" Kisame said but so did another voice, the two water jutsus slammed into each other thusly canceling each other out. "The same jutsu as mine?"

"And why are you here?" Asuma said plainly to his silver haired friend.

"I asked you two to deal with them back there…" Kakashi said as he stared down Kisame with his Sharingan showing. Then the other Kakashi that had a kunai drawn on Itachi spoke up. "…but you know, I got worried."

"Kage Bunshin, eh?" Kurenai said looking between the two Copy Ninjas.

"Kakashi Hatake…" Itachi said turning to stare him down Sharingan to Sharingan.

"What business do missing-nin like you have in Konoha right now?" Kakashi said threateningly as he held a kunai to Itachi's neck.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Arashi and Naruto were enjoying their meals at Ichiraku with smiles on their faces. But to Naruto there was something that just didn't feel right, he had a bad feeling about something but just couldn't put his finger on it. They had been talking about their training with Teuchi when he went over to the noodle pot and began preparing two batches. "So after this you two will be getting back to training right?"

"Hai, we're going to train hard so we can be the best!" Arashi said with a grin.

"All right, here." The old man said as he plopped two extra servings of noodles in both of their bowls. They both looked at him oddly, wondering what he was doing. "Seconds are free, just be sure to work hard."

"Thanks, old man!" They both said enthusiastically as they dug into the ramen hungrily. It was then that they both heard the distinctive clack of their new sensei's shoes come in the bar.

"I came here as I was told…looks like you two really do eat ramen all the time." Jiraiya said with a smile as he looked at the two promising new students sitting before him.

"Ero-Sennin!?" Naruto spouted out nearly choking on his ramen. While the other two could only laugh at the whiskered boy's antics. After a while of explaining that he was going to be taking them both on a trip to search for someone Naruto was confused and Arashi was wondering who they were going to be looking for. "Why? Why do we have to go along with you on some stupid trip!?" Naruto yelled out as they walked down the streets of Konoha.

"Baka, this isn't some kind of normal trip you now. It's a trip to find a certain girl." Naruto just looked at him questioningly while Arashi had a scowl thinking that this was just going to be a search for some girl for the pervert to sleep with. "She's really beautiful; you both know you want to come along." He said with a perverted wink.

"BAKA!! We both have girlfriends!!" Naruto yelled out making Jiraiya burst out laughing. "Besides we want to get going with our training, we can't do that if we go with you."

"Hm, training?" Jiraiya said with a grin knowing exactly what to do to get them to come along. "Well…I was going to teach you both a very powerful jutsu…but if you don't want to come I guess I could go ask Sasuke…"

"WHAT!?!?! Hell no, we're coming and that's final! I'm going to go pack, don't you dare move from that spot!!" Naruto yelled as he speed off to his apartment to pack for the trip, leaving Arashi and Jiraiya standing there with a shocked expression.

Sighing Arashi looked up at his giggling sensei. "That was a dirty trick you pulled, and am I correct in my assumptions of what you'll be teaching us?"

"Can't get anything past you can I Arashi, I'm sure your roomie has told you all about that jutsu. But you do spoil my fun with you already knowing about it! Just go pack and make sure that idiot doesn't pack too much. I'll see you both at the village gates in an hour." With that Jiraiya disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving Arashi to follow his friend and make sure he doesn't overdo things once more.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kakashi found himself starring into the eyes of Itachi as thoughts ran through his head. 'I once saw eyes like his quite often. That means he is a true successor of the Sharingan. This is the worst possible situation we could be in.'

Off to the side Kisame was staring down the man in front of him ad noticed the red left eye he had. "Hm, so it looks like there is another user of the Sharingan besides Itachi-san, and he is known as the Copy Ninja, Kakashi Hatake." He said with a toothy grin, gaining a smug grin from the silver haired man before him.

"The pleasure is all mine. Those two suspicious men by the dango shop, who would have thought they were none other than Itachi Uchiha and the Mist Village's deadly Kisame Hoshigaki?"

"Well, well…my name is known here. What an honor!" The blue man said making light of the situation he and Itachi found themselves in. "That Zabuza kid was killed by you, am I right?" He said as he pulled his sword back to hold onto it readying for battle. When Kakashi nodded Kisame lifted the large blade above his head and brought it down to point at his enemy. "Then we need to dish out some pain here."

"Stop, Kisame." The Uchiha ordered calmly, causing everyone to look questioningly at him. "If you go after that man, you will not be forgiven. In time, many more Shinobi can and will interfere. You must not lose sight of our goal, we are not here to make enemies."

"Then tell us…what is your goal?" The Kakashi Bunshin asked right before he dispersed into a puff of smoke.

Looking back behind him at the real Kakashi, Itachi spoke calmly and plainly. "We are here looking for something."

"Looking for something…what are you looking for?" Kakashi uttered in a threatening tone while raising his kunai up ready to lash at the Uchiha.

"Since you are facing me instead of Kisame, this shouldn't take any time." In a flash his arm shot out of his cloak holding four shuriken.

Seeing the incoming attack Kakashi leapt back and flashed through hand signs. "Suiton: Core Barrier!" Just as he did this several tendrils of spiraling water shot from the water aimed right at Kakashi. But just as he landed on the water his wall of water formed up to protect him at the last second, stopping the incoming water attack. 'What disturbing speed…my eyes couldn't keep up. He used those shuriken in his right hand to lure out the Suiton.'

"Just what I would expect form you Kakashi-san. Your insight is lightning fast." But suddenly Kakashi felt a kunai stab into his back and hear another voice behind him. "Is it not?"

Still kneeling on the water's surface Kurenai couldn't el but be amazed at Itachi's skill. "Kage Bunshin? The jutsu's speed is too fast!" As she watched Kakashi's pain stricken face he suddenly turned into water and splashed down into the water. 'Thank Kami, a Mizu Bunshin!' But seeing Itachi's gaze drift down below him Kurenai saw the real Kakashi underwater beneath her holding onto a kunai. "Nice, Kakashi!" She said as she reached down and took the blade from him.

But before she could do anything Kakashi jumped out of the water and grabbed her. "Get down! It's a Kage Bunshin!" Just as she heard him say that the Itachi in front of them erupted like a bomb.

"Kakashi! Kurenai-chan!!" Asuma yelled as he watched the explosion send water everywhere. Throwing caution to the wind he leapt high into the air to go find and help them. Not caring about the blue man that had been standing next to him Asuma was very worried about his friend and girlfriend. Plunging into the wave of water that resulted from the explosion he found them and was relived for a bit. The water that had been thrown into the air was now coming down on them all like rain soaking them to the core. "Kakashi…" He said but then saw the form of Itachi standing behind Kakashi with the same cold expression on his face.

Whipping his head around he stared intently at the Uchiha. "Keep your guard up, this man was ANBU captain at 13, and…" 

"Is this all he has?" Kurenai asked trying to judge where they stood against him.

"No, he hasn't shown us his full strength yet." Turning so that he was facing the cloaked man he glared at him with hatred in his eyes.

But before he could say anything Itachi spoke up thinking it was time to end the charade of battle that he was putting up. "Uchiha, the clan that uses the Sharingan, you may have the eye and its powers but…that doesn't make you a part of the Uchiha clan. You lack the Kekkei Genkai abilities, yours is a cheap knock off stolen from the clan…like a prosthetic…"

'He's right, so he gets right to the point.' Kakashi thought as he glared at his opponent as he insulted him and his abilities.

"Why do you think the Uchiha is the strongest? The answer is…Sharingan" He said closing his eyes. "I'll show you the true strength of this Kekkei Genkai." He said as he slowly opened his eyes to look at the others.

"It can't be…! Not good!" He then yelled to the others knowing what could be coming. "Both of you! Don't look at his eyes!" Instantly they both shut their eyes tight and Kakashi closed his normal eye and stared at the Uchiha in front of him. "No matter what, don't open your eyes. If you look into his, it will be the end for you both. Only someone with the Sharingan can face him now."

"Indeed Sharingan powers are needed here, but my Mangekyo Sharingan has already decided how things will follow. However…" He began to say as Kakashi felt a something odd happening to him. "…The Sharingan has a special doujutsu. The Genjutsu Tsukiyomi is unbeatable even for you. To defeat me, the same Kekkei Genkai Sharingan is needed."

It was then that Kakashi remembered that they were here looking for something. "Sasuke…" Suddenly he felt his body move and looking around everything was different. He was now in an odd world with a red sky and a full black moon. As he scanned his new surroundings he noticed that every thing's color was inversed and in black and white. He was positioned on a 'T' shaped wooden object and was strapped onto it tightly so that he couldn't move. In front of him was standing Itachi except he now held a long katana and his colors weren't inverted.

"In this world I control everything, the landscape…" Suddenly the flat plain they had been on vanished and was replaced with the landscape of a section of downtown Konoha. Kakashi could see some various Uchiha emblems on things but couldn't understand why they were there. "…its space, time, and substance are controlled by me." Suddenly Itachi thrust the sword he was holding into Kakashi's side causing him to yell in pain and closing his eyes. When he opened then he looked down to see that there was no wound. "Even though this is a genjutsu, the pain is quite real. From now on you will endure 72 hours of torture."

Hearing that Kakashi smirked at his torturer. "If this is all you plan to do you might as well make it 96 hours, I can deal with this pain." He said harshly at the Uchiha.

Itachi then broke his emotionless face and showed Kakashi an evil grin that sickened him to the core. "You thought that this was all I would be doing, you're not giving me enough credit Kakashi-san." Kakashi's eyes widened as he saw many people filled the street he was in. Looking at them they all looked like Uchiha. Also Itachi's cloths had changed; he was no longer in his cloak, but rather in his old ANBU uniform. "I'm going to show you exactly what I did that day." Itachi said evilly pointing over to a nearby house.

Following the point Kakashi looked over and instantly knew the house, Obito's house, and standing in the doorway looking exactly as he remembered her was the first woman he had ever loved, the one who he was to marry if the bastard in front of him hadn't taken that away from him. "Rin…" He managed to whisper as he could only watch her exit the house with a wave and a smile. She had gone that fateful day all those years ago to pay Obito's family a visit but had been caught up in things.

"I thought it was rather funny that she happened to be in the Uchiha district that day, she was the only non-Uchiha I killed before I left." Kakashi then saw another Itachi appear and begin his slaughter, left and right Uchiha fell from the swift strokes of his blade. Blood splattered everywhere. Kakashi was forced to watch as he saw Rin hear the scream and turn to stare Itachi right in the eyes as the katana was thrust straight through her chest sticking her to the wall as blood erupted from her along with a blood curdling scream.

"RIN!!!!!!!!" Kakashi screamed in pain as old emotional wounds were ripped open and tears streamed down his face. Struggling against the restraints he saw the life leave her as she mumbled his name before she slumped over dead. In a flash everything was back to normal except instead of the whole street and everyone else, it was only Obito's house with Rin standing smiling in the doorway. "No…" Kakashi said as he saw her get slaughtered again by the man in front of him while he stuck the katana in his hand into his side again.

Closing his eyes to escape looking at it, he soon found that they were forced open and he was met with hundreds of houses with hundreds of Rins along with hundreds of murderous Itachis. "You now have 71 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds remaining."

'This is…only…only one second has gone by!!' He thought as she saw the Itachis speed towards his ex-fiancé.

"RIIIN!!!!!!!!!!" Kakashi screamed out with all his breath, suddenly he noticed that everything was back to normal and was once again on the water in the real world. He could remember everything that had gone on and was feeling the pain that had been administered to him both physically and psychologically. He fell down to his knees and struggled to move his gaze up to the Uchiha.

"What's wrong Kakashi? Did something happen while our eyes were closed? What happened, he was speaking and then you collapsed!" Asuma said sounding very worried.

'So, that world I was in…even thought I was in there for three days…it was only a second out here. But…why didn't he kill me, did he just want to make me suffer!?'

In a blur Kisame appeared next to Itachi with a smile on his face. "Oh…that jutsu is used to break down an enemy's spirit, but you know not to use that eye too much or it'll become dangerous Itachi-san." He said looking at Itachi's twitching eyes.

Despite the things going on with him Kakashi was using his last shreds of strength to get any information on them. "What you're looking for…it's Sasuke, isn't it?"

"No…it's Yondaime Hokage's legacy." Itachi said in the same cold and calm voice he had been using before.

'Naruto…?' Kakashi thought back to what he had spoken with Jiraiya about the day before.

_He and the white haired Sannin were standing on a large overlook seeing the majority of the village. "Long time no see Jiraiya-sama. This is your first return to the village in how many years?"_

_But the older man had a very serious look on his face and simply didn't answer the question. "Kakashi…I'm going to take care of Naruto and Arashi for now. The duty to look after Naruto has been given to us by Sandaime, and now with what we know of Arashi there could be potential dangers for him as well. Your level has been high enough until now."_

"_Just what are you talking about, and what about Hinata? You planning on leaving her by herself? I know those two won't stand for it."_

"_There are many options we can come up with for her…but I've been watching Orochimaru closely ever since he left the village. With the things that have happened he is a threat, but he isn't our only problem."_

"_Then what else?"_

"_He had joined an organization…I don't know everything, but from what I do know they are a group of nine Shinobi called Akatsuki. Lately they haven't been moving at all and there haven't been any problems. They are all S-Class felons and in the Bingo Book…Itachi is in this organization." Kakashi felt the anger in him flare up at even the mention of that name. "They seem to be looking for certain things. But I've heard that Orochimaru left the organization a couple years ago and that he is vital to their cause. We both know of his special jutsu the Edo Tensei, and what the ANBU reported concerning his use of it during his fight with Sensei. But this Akatsuki seems to be going around and collecting things to harness as power."_

"_Can one of those things be Kyuubi?"_

"_That's very probable, but also in regards to what Orochimaru could have been vital for I think that Arashi could be in danger as well. Kakashi, those boys need to, and are meant to be prepared…It's their fate."_

"You're after…what lies within Naruto. It's Kyuubi, isn't it? You're moving, but you're not the only ones who know. The organization was called…Akatsuki, was it not?"

Itachi flinched slightly at Kakashi's knowledge and Kisame looked shocked. "Kisame, get rid of Kakashi-san. These people need to disappear, they know too much." In a rush Kisame shot at them with Samahada ready to attack when he was suddenly stopped.

"Konoha Senpu!" Was heard as a blur of green cloths and black hair was seen knocking Kisame back to where Itachi was still standing.

"Who the hell are you?" The blue man asked in an annoyed tone, glaring at Gai.

"I am Konoha's Beautiful Green Beast…Maito Gai!" He said with his trademark tooth sparkle.

"What's this, I thought this was getting interesting but I get a guy with bad fashion taste!"

"Don't underestimate him." Itachi said calmly making Kisame realize that the man before him was no one to think little of. If Itachi held respect for him, then he had to be amazing.

It was then that Kakashi's last ounce of strength gave in and he began sinking into the water unconscious. Walking over Gai reached down and lifter his eternal rival out of the water and slung him over his shoulder. "Don't look into Itachi's eyes Gai! Else you'll get trapped in whatever he did to Kakashi!"

"I already know these things, after fighting against a Sharingan used all these years I've developed a way to fight them by reading their movements from their feet. As long as you don't focus on his face you'll be fine, open your eyes." The other two suspiciously opened them and instantly looked down at their enemy's feet. "Now, it's time to get down to business! Kurenai, you need to take Kakashi to the hospital. Asuma, you'll join me." He said as he handed the limp body to Kurenai. Getting a nod from the chain smoker he turned and looked at their feet. "I've already contacted ANBU, but for right now we'll take them on."

Kisame couldn't be happier, he was about to get into a big fight that was promising to be very entertaining. "Entertaining…a pleasure isn't it?"

"Kisame, stop right there. We're not here to start a war. Unfortunately, going any further would be nonsense. We're going back." The Uchiha said making sure his partner didn't do anything too rash.

"After all this too? Oh well, it can't be helped, eh?" In a flash they were gone, leaving the four Jonin standing in the middle of the river.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Basically Sasuke was having a very bad day, first he had found out the information on Arashi that he had been looking for, and then he had been ditched by Kakashi after a little chat telling the boy that he would be receiving additional training from him after his team activities were finished on most days. While Sasuke wanted the training he had heard of Kakashi's famous tardiness and was suspicions to as how long the extra training would take and how much it would cut out of his beauty time.

'What could possibly make this day any worse?' He thought in his head while still seething over the particulars of the Himura he had found, when he was answered with the thing that could make it worse.

"SASUKE-KUN!!!" The pink haired girl on hi team screeched as she ran over to the Uchiha who was frantically trying o find a way to escape any interaction with her. Finally coming to a stop she gasped for breath after getting to him as fast as she could. "What are you doing out here Sasuke-kun, I thought you had a meeting with Kakashi-sensei about something."

'How does she know about that? Is she stalking me…I wouldn't put it past her.' Sasuke didn't respond to her inquiry but just glared at the ground as the thoughts of the day swirled in his mind.

Noticing the look on her love's face Sakura couldn't help to be curious as to what it was all about. "Is something the matter Sasuke-kun? You can tell me if you want…" She then lowered her voice and batted her eyelashes at Sasuke trying to get any reaction out of him. "…you can tell me anything."

The slight seductive tone she used must have done something to the cold boy because he figured that he would try talking about his thoughts for once. "What do you know about Arashi's powers?"

A little thrown off by the odd nature of his question and by the fact that he was talking to her Sakura rubbed her chin while trying to think of something. "Hmmm, well come to think of it I don't really know much other than he's really fast, can summon wolves, and can do some sort of Raiton jutsus…"

"Exactly, we don't really know much at all. It's the same with Naruto, as long as we've know both of them you would think that we could figure out their powers. But what do you remember when he saved us from Gaara, did you see anything odd with him?" Looking at Sakura she simply shook her head saying that she hadn't actually seen him when it happened, that it had happened too fast for her to see. "As I thought, but I did…he had the Sharingan."

"WHAT!! How is that possible? Does that mean that he is actually an Uchiha?? But then why are his eyes blue and his hair is now blonde like Naruto's!?" 

"Calm down, that fool is definitely NOT an Uchiha. But when I saw it I got very curious and so this morning I went and did some research on the Himura." While saying this they walked down the street. "While I was there I found out some interesting information on his clan that explained a lot…" Sasuke then scowled as he thought of what the book had told him.

"What is it Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked in a very curious tone while inching closer to him as they walked.

"He has a Kekkei Genkai…and it has the ability to absorb and steal other people's Kekkei Genkai. That loser stole my Sharingan, and with Hinata on his team I'm sure he has the Byakugan also! The little sneak steals other's abilities and techniques!" He could feel the sharp pain of his curse seal wanting to activate from the rage he felt thinking about Arashi's ease at using the Sharingan and the theft of Uchiha abilities.

After hearing what Sasuke said Sakura was trying to sort out what she had been told. After a couple seconds she couldn't help but giggle slightly at Sasuke. "Sasuke-kun, don't you do the same things just with jutsu not Kekkei Genkai?"

He just stopped and stared at her with a dumbfounded look. "Well, I guess I never thought about it like that. But still, no one steals things from Sasuke Uchiha!" He said trying to get his cool look back after the embarrassing look him had given her. She could only giggle at him, but unknown to them a figure in a long hooded grey cloak had overheard everything they had said.

"So, that Himura has achieved what his wretch of a father couldn't. We still need more information, but this will prove to be valuable news…" He said in a sadistic voice as he suddenly vanished from Konoha.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"You got everything you're going to need Arashi?" The blonde boy said as he poked his head into his friend's room to see him putting the last thing into his pack.

"Yeah, now you go on ahead to meet up with Ero-Sennin. I have something to do before we go." He said hoping that he wouldn't be questioned on what his was going of to do.

"Oh, that's fine I managed to go say bye to Sasame-chan before you got back here." Naruto said with a satisfied grin as he slipped out of Arashi's apartment and off to wait at the front gates for their perverted new sensei and for Arashi.

After packing up everything Arashi felt he needed, he set out for the Hyuuga estate. Despite going there everyday to pick up Hinata for training and missions he always felt odd there, like he was being watched for any kind of flaw or mishap that would tarnish the Hyuuga name. The stuck up attitude of most Hyuuga was the biggest reason he didn't exactly enjoy spending time in their household. It was also, why he had no sense of liking Neji; to him he was the perfect example of the Hyuuga arrogance and stuck up behavior. But despite this feeling he got from most Hyuuga, Hinata was completely devoid of any of the negative qualities that her family possessed. Also in more recent times her father had seemed to brighten up considerably from the glaring man that Arashi remembered from his childhood. Before long he had arrived in front of the massive gates of the Hyuuga estate and after knocking he was met with quite possibly the Hyuuga he disliked the most. "Hello Hanabi-san, I've come to speak with Hina-chan, is she around?"

The younger girl glared daggers at him. "I am the daughter of the head of the Hyuuga, Arashi-san and you shall address me as such!" She said ticked off by his lack of respect.

Arashi could feel his brow twitch from her stuck up response, how she was Hinata's sister Arashi could never figure out. But in the situation he really didn't have time to deal with the little brat so quickly he came up with a way to get rid of her fast. "Yes you may be the daughter of the head of your clan, but I AM the head of my clan and you failed to give me the proper respect. Now unless you wish me to bring this up with Hiashi-sama then I advise you to tell me where I can find Hina-chan." 'Now let's see her squirm under that!' He said in his mind laughing.

Hanabi had a look of shock on her face when she realized that she could get in serious trouble with her father for the inadvertent insult she had given to him. Even if he was young, he was the last of his clan and head of it as well. She was about to stammer out an apology when she heard a slight chuckle behind her. "So does this mean you wish for me to address you as Arashi-sama?" Hiashi said with a slight grin as he saw his daughter almost have a heart attack from his sudden presence. "Don't worry Hanabi; he was only joking with you. Now please go fetch your sister and tell her that Arashi is here." With a slight bow to her father Hanabi zipped out of there to find her sister.

"Sorry about that Hiashi-sama, she just had gotten on my last nerve." Arashi said explaining the situation.

"Yes, she can do that to a person. You really are like another Arashi I used to know, always with the jokes." Hiashi said with a look of remembrance on his face. "I remember a time when I had pissed off your mother and Arashi-kun; they put red hair dye in my shampoo. I couldn't get it out for weeks!" He said more to himself with a loud chuckle. "Now, what is it that you wish to see my daughter about? Could it have anything to do with what happened on top of the Hokage monument after Sandaime-sama's funeral?" Hiashi asked with a jokingly serious look on his face.

"B-But…wh-what…I don't know what you're talking about Hiashi-sama."

"Now Arashi, if you think I'm blind enough not to see my own daughter's feelings and what happened up there then you truly have insulted the eyes we Hyuuga are so proud of." Hiashi was having quite a good time tormenting the boy with the knowledge he had gained from watching them the other day. He just wished he had a camera to get a picture of Arashi's face at the moment. With a flash of his white eyes Hiashi inspected his household and found it just the way he expected it to be. "Well it would seem as if Hanabi has forgotten to fetch Hinata, she is in the meditation garden. You do remember where that is correct?" Getting only a nod from the still stunned Himura he motioned for him to enter the house.

Elsewhere Hinata was sitting in her favorite spot in the mediation gardens of her home, it had always been a place that she could go to escape the pains she had felt as a child living with her family. No matter how badly she was being treated or how run down she felt she always felt better in the garden. After a while she had learned that her mother had been the one to plant everything and make it into the beautiful area that it was. But her favorite place was a secluded bench that sat in front of a small Koi pond, next to it was her absolute favorite thing. It was a small patch of flowers that only seemed to grow next to the pond; they were a breath taking cerulean blue that Hinata had only seen in Arashi's eyes before. In the days of the academy it had made her feel as is she was still next to him looking into his eyes.

Once again she was staring into the pond thinking back to the perfection that the day before had been to her for about the twentieth time that day. She was so completely lost in her thoughts of Arashi that she didn't notice his reflection in the pond until he placed a hand lightly on her shoulder, making her jump in surprise. "Gomen, Hina-chan I didn't mean to startle you. What were you doing out here by the way?"

"Anou…well I was just out here thinking about yesterday." She said with a slight bush. She had noticed that her stutter had almost vanished completely after revealing her feelings to Arashi and had them returned, she had nothing to hide from him any longer. She only stuttered slightly when speaking with her father or Neji. "It's just that me being your g-girlfriend…it's a bit odd, I keep thinking I'm going to wake up and all of this is just a dream."

Arashi could only smile, it was true. He had half expected to wake up after their first kiss, but was proven wrong. Just to make this clear he reached over and gave her a small pinch on the cheek. "See you're not dreaming…" Then hesitating for a second he nervously reached down and gave her a small kiss where he had pinched her and sat down next to her with a blush and a large smile. The whole girlfriend thing was still a little odd to him as well; he saw it as just a title that was used to describe their relationship. But he liked it; he liked the way it rolled off his tongue and the way it sounded in his mind. It all sounded just so right, so natural, so perfect. "But I did come here to tell you something."

Hinata was still sporting a slight blush from the kiss and their closeness, but she enjoyed it and inched closer hearing him say that he needed to talk to her. "What is it Arashi-kun, something bad?"

He only laughed slightly and put his arm around her and let her head rest on his shoulder. "It really depends on how you look at it. I see it as a good thing but I guess you could see it as bad. I'm leaving with Naruto and Ero-Sennin on a mission to find someone. I may be gone a while, but Ero-Sennin said he's going to teach us a really powerful jutsu. I'm just sorry that I couldn't convince him to let you come along, and believe me I tried. So I stopped by to say goodbye and that I promise I'll come back." He said with a grin that made Hinata feel lucky that she was sitting otherwise her knees might have given out. "On the good side, with us out for a bit you'll be getting some good one on one training with Kakashi-sensei, just don't beat him up too bad Hina-chan."

She giggled at his last remark and nuzzled her head onto him and sat there for a minute with a smile on her face. "I'm going to miss you Arashi-kun, but being Shinobi we're going to have to go on missions so there's nothing I can do about it." Leaning up she pushed herself to be bold and gave him a sweet sensual kiss on his lips. Breaking it they both stood up and Arashi wrapped his arms tightly around his girlfriend as Hinata smiled at the closeness as she breather in his intoxication scent for the last time for a while. "I love you Arashi-kun."

With a huge grin on his face he kissed the top of her head. "I love you too Hina-chan. But I need to go now, the other two are probably waiting on me and I don't want to be like Kakashi-sensei!" She giggled at him and gave him another small goodbye kiss before they released each other and Arashi left the gardens with a smile on his face.

"Young love is so sweet; you're just like your father was when he finally got together with Kenshi." Arashi heard as he walked towards the front door, freezing in his tracks he looked back to see Hiashi leaning against a column with an actual smile on his face. "Good luck on your trip Arashi, but when you return I have a very important discussion to have with you now that Sandaime-sama is no longer with us. Now you shouldn't keep Ero-sensei waiting." Arashi simply nodded and zipped out of the estate in a flash. "Yes, it will be an interesting discussion indeed…" Turning around Hiashi gazed upon his day dreaming daughter with another genuine smile. "…I'm sure you'll make her happy Arashi Himura."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Where is that brat at a time like this, we need to get on the road as quick as we can!" Jiraiya complained, pulling a Kakashi while skimming over one of his books.

Naruto was already wondering how he was going to last being with the white haired Sannin for an entire trip. "He said he went to say good bye to Hinata-chan, give him some more time. It's not like he's going to forget what we're doing, he's just as excited to learn this new jutsu as I am!"

With a perverted giggle Jiraiya couldn't help but pry into his student's lives. "So then what's going on with Arashi and Hinata?"

Suddenly he was hit square on the top of his head with a fist sized ice ball, knocking him back into a tree. "That is none of your business Ero-Sennin!" Arashi shouted out from a nearby tree branch while tossing another ice ball between his hands with a smirk that told Jiraiya to drop the subject less he want another bruise.

"Fine, you brats ready to go?" He retorted while rubbing his now swelling head, reaching down he picked up the very thing that caused the bump and started to ice it with it getting a laugh from Naruto.

"YEAH! Let's go find this chick!!" Naruto yelled with raises fists gaining laughs from his other two companions as they departed Konoha in search of the infamous Slug Sannin.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Ok, well I would like to say sorry for the time it took to update, I had exams and moving out of my dorm. As for the next chapter I'm just saying that I don't particularly like the whole Itachi Sasuke thing, so unless I get the right inspiration AKA reviews, it might take a while. Plus I found it hard to write this one because I so just want to skip ahead to after it cuz that's where all of my new ideas and such are going to come into play and I can't wait to write them, it's going to be so good!**

**Sooooo, review! It'll make the net update come much faster!**


	21. The Cursed Clan of Uchiha!

**Review Reply:**

**Animeskid: **You're the 1st person to say they don't like Sasame-chan! How!?! Oh well I think it's a nice pairing, but nothing compared to NaruHina! It's only acceptable in my story for them not to be together b/c Arashi and Hinata are just the best together!

**Unknown-nin345: **Well you'll have to wait until the next chapter to find out about Rasengan.

**Static44: **Yeah, I thought that title would be like the best way to start pissing Sasuke off.

**Chosha Kurenai: **Good job on picking up on the guy who overheard the convo between Sakura and Sasuke! I'll give you a hint…he'll be back after Tsunade Arc is over….but shhhh

**Artemis-kibasgirlfriend: **Yeah, despite being a guy I do like seeing fluff and all, and I think the way that I've done Arashi and Hinata's relationship growth is really good, it's one of the things I had to get right of the story would be a piece of crap.

**Kazuma Watanabe: **Yes, Kakashi did have it rough in the last chapter, but hey he gets a really long nap out of it!

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"BOOOOM!!' A huge explosion went off sending rubble and random objects everywhere in the forest where two cloak clad figures stood.

"This one was empty as well Sasori-sempai, are you sure you know where his hideouts are, hmm?" The normally shaped one with blonde hair said as he scanned the destruction with his optical implant.

"Shut up Deidara, I don't actually think he's going to be in any of these. One thing Orochimaru isn't is dumb, he's going to figure that we're after him and that Leader-sama would send me. Since he knows I have knowledge of some of his hideouts he'll avoid them, we're going and destroying them in case he goes to them eventually after we've passed them over in our search." The slumped over figure of the ex-Suna ninja retorted in agitation, he wasn't having a good time waiting to find his former partner. Looking through the rubble he chuckled evilly when he saw one Oto ninja trapped under a large rock and still alive.

"Oh, looks like one survived!" Deidara said as he shoved his hand into his side pouch to infuse more clay with his exploding chakra.

"Wait; let's see if he knows anything." Shuffling along Sasori came to a stop next to the half crushed man. "You, tell me where Orochimaru is and I'll lift this rock off of you. If not my partner will plant a bomb on you as soon as I turn around." Sasori went straight to the point as was his style.

"A-Alright! The last I heard he had moved to the west for the week! Now get me ou…." He was suddenly silenced by a bladed tail coming out of Sasori's cloak that had pierced straight through his skull and ripped his head clear off.

"We got what we needed, we go west." He said as he whipped his tail to get the blood off of it.

"You could have let me have a little fun, hmm!" The blonde said before they both jumped onto the large clay bird that had been waiting for them in a nearby tree.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The trio of Konoha Shinobi was currently walking along at a slow pace after leaving the village quite some time ago. Jiraiya was having quite a fun time listening in on the two Genin's bickering and conversations. At the moment Naruto was teasing Arashi about his and their absent team mate's newly official relationship. This brought a smile to the Sannin's face as he vividly remembered almost the exact same thing happening with his old Genin squad. He chuckled slightly as he remembered how Arashi teased Kenshi mercilessly after she started to date Sano; she actually had to break the boy's arm to get him to stop. Jiraiya just wished that the Arashi didn't inherit his mother's inability to take a joke. He was fully content with his happy memories at the moment but was rudely pulled from them by a tug at his vest by his orange clad student. "Ne, ne, Ero-Sennin! What's so funny?" Getting no response Naruto scowled and decided to annoy his sensei even more. "I wonder what you'll teach us now; you won't tell us anything about it! What is it??"

Arashi snickered at his friend's antics and at Jiraiya's annoyance at the boy. But unfortunately for Arashi, Naruto caught his smile and picked up on it. "You know don't you Arashi!!" Naruto now felt out of the loop and if there was one thing Naruto Uzumaki hated, it was being left out of the loop. Crossing his arms and scowling hard as he walked Naruto muttered something under his breath but still loud enough for the others to hear him. "I bet Yondaime-sama told you all about it since he was Ero-Sennin's student."

Suddenly Jiraiya stopped mid step, frozen in place as his jaw hung open staring at Naruto. "H-h-ho-how…d-do you k-know about that!?!?" He said sounding like Hinata used to.

Arashi then broke the tension between them all when he started to laugh very hard at the Toad summoner. "Don't worry Ero-Sennin, we know about each other's 'tenants', I told him about Yondaime when we were in the hospital after the invasion." He said calmly, like it was no big deal that they had told each other about their deepest secrets. Ignoring the slack jawed Sannin Arashi looked back to his friend. "But to answer your question Naruto…yeah I know some things." He said with a grin that made Naruto fall over comedically at the vagueness of his answer. "Really I only know the name and that Yondaime created it and taught it to Ero-Sennin."

Scoffing at the green and black clad boy Naruto ran back to the still frozen Jiraiya and started spewing off things to him. "Arashi knows about this jutsu, tell me! When are we going to start training for it? Hurry up and teach us Ero-Sennin!!" He rattled of as they began to approach a small bridge.

Still half in his daze Jiraiya looked down at Naruto with an annoyed look in his eyes. "Will you stop going around spouting off "Ero-Sennin, Ero-Sennin!" Don't you know how great of a person I am?"

"Great? At what…being perverted??" He replied, gaining a fist being shook in front of his face as Arashi couldn't help but laugh. Both of them suddenly had a bad feeling when they saw their sensei run to the top of the bridge and start jumping on one foot with a smile on his face.

"It's true that I've been called the Gama-Sennin in my years. But that's not all!" Grabbing onto the front of his long hair he began to rotate so that his long wild ponytail spun around like a propeller. "You can hear about me all over the world!" Quickly the scroll that was always present on his back was thrown skywards as he made a single handed hand sign. "The festival's one and only…" In a puff of smoke Gama appeared beneath him much like when the boys had first met him in the forest. "White haired Toad summoner! The one who makes the kids stop crying, Jiraiya-sama!" As quickly as he had appeared Gama was gone and Jiraiya continued on with his odd dance. "Oh yeah! That's me baby!"

Naruto just looked at him like he was crazy as he and Arashi calmly walked past their sensei who was still in his ridiculous pose with a dark expression on his face at being ignored. "Naruto, you know you shouldn't encourage him…" Arashi said trying hard not to break out into laughter like Yondaime was, when a crow flew overhead cawing at Jiraiya saying his was being idiotic.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"…and then he left to go on a mission with Naruto-kun and Jiraiya-sensei." Hinata said after finishing her long story about what had happened concerning her and Arashi. She looked up to see the smiling faces of Ino and Chouji who looked to be very happy for her, off to her side she could also see a slight interest from the lazy shadow user.

"That's great Hinata! I'm so glad that you two finally came out and told each other!" Chouji said as he took another bite of beef from the grill in front of them. Hinata had gone out to eat with Team 10 when she couldn't find Kakashi; apparently they didn't have a clue where Asuma was either so they decided to go out to the BBQ place and see what everyone was up too. After a little bit Hinata decided to bring up her new relationship with Arashi and had a great time re-telling everything to them with a smile.

Breaking the silence that had come over them Shikamaru actually spoke up. "It really is about time, you two have been crazy about each other since the Academy. It was getting kind of ridiculous that you hadn't told one another or figured it out." Getting an odd look from Hinata, Shikamaru simply sighed heavily. "What, did you think we couldn't notice? We all knew the whole time that you guys liked each other, basically since the first day we met! Right Chouji?"

Said Akimichi smiled and nodded his head while in mid bite. "We always knew, we just didn't think it was our business to pry in and try to force you two together. Things like that…they just sort of happen." He sad with an even larger smile as he looked over at his girlfriend. "Now we just need to work on you Shikamaru!"

He nearly chocked on the beef he was eating when he heard Chouji say that. "W-What!? Why is it me!?"

His friend just laughed at him. "It's because everyone in our group of friends has found someone besides you and Kiba, and we're going to work on you because…you know." He said with hesitation on the last part.

Shikamaru grumbled but agreed. "Why wouldn't you guys help Kiba? He's our friend, and what about Shino?" Hinata said in a bit of confusion.

"This is so troublesome…Kiba's situation is kind of complicated. But as for Shino, I heard from Arashi that apparently he has been in an arranged marriage with someone in his clan since birth, he just chose not to tell us or we didn't bring it up." Seeing the inquisitory look still on Hinata's face the Nara looked over at Chouji and gave him a certain look.

Seeing the look Chouji scrambled with his thoughts to try and come up with something that could get them out of this conversation. "Oh Hinata! Naruto and Arashi's birthday is coming up in about a month or so, have you thought of anything to get them?" Chouji said hoping that this could change her line of thought.

Hinata gasped as she realized that it was coming up soon and with them being gone on a mission for a while, they might not be back before it. "I didn't realize it was so soon, and I haven't even thought of anything for them!"

With a sly smile Chouji got up out of his seat after giving Ino a slight kiss on the cheek. "Well, then how about you and I go look for something for them, I haven't gotten anything yet so we can do it together. Shikamaru you wouldn't mind if we split on you and perhaps could walk Ino-chan home?"

With a faked sigh Shikamaru waved them off. When they had gone Ino was now completely lost. "Shikamaru, what the hell just happened?"

"Kiba…he's had a huge crush on Hinata ever since we became friends. Don't you remember what he said about her during his fight with Naruto in the preliminaries of the Chunin Exams? She hasn't picked up on it surprisingly, but with her just starting things off with Arashi we don't want her to get caught up in all of it. What she doesn't know can't hurt her…or better yet, what she doesn't know she can't hurt." Ino understood, even without being inside their group during the academy she remembered seeing signs that Kiba had a thing for Hinata.

Elsewhere in the shopping district Hinata and Chouji were looking through the shops for something that would be good for their two favorite Libras when Hinata saw something that caught her eye. Walking into the store she saw the perfect gift for Naruto, she had already decided not to get them anything Shinobi related. It was a beautiful trowel with the Konoha symbol engraved on it. She knew how much Naruto enjoyed his little window garden he had and had actually heard he complaining one time at his lack of a trowel. After paying for it she stepped out of the shop with a smile on her face and showed it to Chouji who looked like he already had his gifts. "A trowel? That's…odd."

Hinata could only giggle and nodded to him as she kept looking. Then suddenly she saw it, exactly what to get Arashi. Bolting into the store she quickly bought it so no one else could and ran out with a big smile on her face as she showed it to Chouji who laughed loudly. "That IS perfect for him!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The streets of Konoha for the most part were under complete reconstruction and currently Sakura was cleaning off a newly made sign in front of her house when she heard her mother calling for her from inside. "Sakura, could you take this ohagi over to Ino-chan's house?" With a nod she picked up the box and headed out to her destination.

About halfway there she stopped and smiled a fan girl smile as she looked down at the box she was holding. "I know! I'll take some to Sasuke-kun later! I hope he likes sweets. Maybe Arashi and Naruto too, although it seems Naruto would eat anything." Just thinking about those two made her become lost in her thoughts of them. How she was so thankful for all that they have done and that they really are a lot better then she used to think they were. But mostly she thought about how she hadn't thanked them yet for what they did, Arashi saved her and Sasuke at his own expense, and from what her Uchiha dreamboat had told her it was Naruto who defeated Gaara. "I think I'll go give them some after all." She said with a smile as she pranced off towards their apartment building.

But out on the outskirts of the village at a secluded training ground the sound of a thousand birds chirping was quickly followed by a mass of crackling blue chakra as it slammed into a large boulder, leaving a large hole in it. Leaping back Sasuke was panting as he glared at the spot where his attack had struck. "I…I couldn't do anything!" He said coldly as his thoughts raced back to Naruto's display of strength when he and his thousands of cloned pummeled Gaara and when he actually followed it up by summoning a creature bigger than anything Sasuke had seen. "I actually had to be saved by that…that thief!" Sasuke was still outraged at the theft of the Sharingan at Arashi's hands which had ignited a dislike in him, even though he considered the Himura a friend for some reason he had be finding more things that ticked him off about him. As he thought back, Arashi was always the one who seemed to be having the most fun along with Naruto, and he was the only person who came close to his skills at the academy. But most of all Sasuke had admitted to himself that he was almost as strong if not stronger than he was at the time, and Sasuke wouldn't allow that to continue.

Still glaring at the crumbling boulder Sasuke's thoughts once again turned to Naruto and his development. "Naruto is growing stronger and stronger…he's just about even with Arashi's level. Compared to them…I…" The image of the man who every ounce of Sasuke's hatred as aimed at flashed in his head as he summoned another Chidori blast in his palm and rushed at the rock. "What have I been doing!?!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Far away from Konoha a pair of Sharingan eyes were intently watching their target walking carefree with his friend and new protector. Next to him his blue partner had a grim look on his face as they kept their distance for good reason. "He's an opponent that you might be able to face…but I would die. He's a totally different level."

"Yes, if either of us were to fight him we would certainly die. Even if we both attacked we might be able to kill him but we would also loose our lives. Where we would fight doesn't matter, even if there were more of us here, nothing would make a difference at this point in time." Itachi replied, knowing never to underestimate the white haired Sannin.

"Him being one of the Legendary Three…it will certainly make things difficult for even us."

"That is true; however…everyone has a weakness, no matter how strong the first appear to be." Still closely observing their prey, Itachi glared hard at the roadblock that was holding them back from success. "Naruto-kun will be ours…" He said as they vanished from sight.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ha-ha, these are funny sounding bells." Arashi said as he and Naruto shook the temple bells during their small break from walking. Looking over at Naruto he held up two fingers as his friend nodded with a smile.

Leaning back in a comfortable position Jiraiya heard them messing with the bells and chuckled. "You two might want to stop that before your luck turns bad."

"Hey Ero-Sennin." He heard Naruto say, turning around he saw that the real Naruto and Arashi were sitting on the shoulders of two Kage Bunshins to get more leverage on the bells. "What was Yondaime like as a student?"

He was caught off guard by the question, he had figured it would be about their lack of ramen but when he asked about Yondaime, Jiraiya nearly choked on the water he was drinking. "Why would you ask that?" He asked as his gaze drifter to Arashi who had a confused look on his face as well.

"Well with him inside of Arashi I was thinking I'd like to get to know some about him. Seeing as pretty much all I know is that he was supposedly the greatest Shinobi alive and was who sealed Kyuubi inside of me." Hearing Naruto's reasons Arashi could almost feel as if Yondaime was smiling at Naruto's eagerness to learn about him.

Jiraiya stared down at the ground for a second contemplating if he should tell Naruto the truth, but deciding that it wasn't time yet he spoke up. "He was my pupil, I'll tell you that. You two sure are lucky to have me teaching you." He turned to see Naruto giving him a look of being gypped. "You don't believe me? He was brought up well; a student is only as good as their sensei can make them."

"Then who taught you?" Arashi asked, Yondaime hadn't really told him much about Jiraiya's or his past in the nightly lessons he was receiving.

"Me? The person who taught me was Sandaime." He said with a smile. "Yup, Sandaime was still quite young then."

"Oji-san…young?" They both said, not thinking it was possible for a second.

"Yeah! I was quite young then myself." The mega pervert said gaining a shocked reaction from Naruto, who happened to tug too hard on the bell he was holding. This action brought it down hard on his head as his Kage Bunshin disappeared, making Arashi pull his down as well but this one also hit Naruto. Falling forward Naruto quickly became tangled in the streamers coming off the bells by the time he finished rolling down the temple steps. "See, didn't I tell you your luck would turn bad." Sitting back down he motioned for the Himura to sit down next to him. "You two were with Kakashi, which means you did all that training with the bells right?"

"Yeah we did." Naruto grinned with pride as he struggled against the surprisingly tough streamers. "We beat him straight up!"

"YOU WHAT!?" Jiraiya yelled in disbelief, not understanding how they had defeated Kakashi and escaped the embarrassment of the post. He had been sure that at least Naruto would have been tied to it. After hearing the story, he was starting to see why Sandaime had so much trust in their abilities and faith in their future. "My students pass with flying colors, while I had to be tied to that stupid post…" He muttered under his breath, but unfortunately for him both of them picked up on it and began rolling around laughing. "Shut up! Naruto, hurry up and put those back. We've rested long enough."

"Okay…but these damn things won't come off!" Naruto yelled as Jiraiya drifted off to his memories of the bell test and how he had fallen for every trap like a fool. But when he remembered how he had first discovered his sensei's perverted side he let out a chuckle just as Naruto finished getting the bells back in place. "What, what? Hey, what's so funny Ero-Sennin?" Naruto asked as Arashi got up from where he was sitting and walked over to the others.

"Oh, I just realized that a good teacher can learn a lot from a good student." He said as he ruffled both of their hair. "We're going, did you fix everything?"

"Yeah, I fixed it dattebayo."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Back in Konoha, more specifically in Kakashi Hatake's apartment many things were going on. After Itachi and Kisame had left the village Kakashi seemed to have fallen into some sort of psychologically induced coma. After going to the hospital the doctors had said that medically there was nothing wrong with him but psychologically there was severe damage. Whatever had happened to him had shattered his mind, and only one possible person might be able to help him. But she hadn't been in the village in a decade so as of yet there was little they could do. He was now lying in his bed deep in his coma as his friends were all gathered in the room with him.

Gai was sitting on a near by stool keeping a close watch on his 'eternal rival' and friend, Asuma and Kurenai were leaning against one of his walls with concern on their faces, and Anko was sitting right next to the bed while holding her boyfriend's hand. Earlier she had come out and told Asuma about it, not really caring for the secrecy any longer and wanting to be there for Kakashi. "From what I can tell, judging by what you told me Asuma and who he was fighting…I can guess that he was forced to relive _That_ day. It's the only thing I can think of that could be this traumatic to Kakashi." He got a very confused look from Anko and Kurenai, but a sigh and a frown from Asuma. "But we can also deduce that they haven't found Naruto yet."

Wanting to get the women's minds off of what could have happened to Kakashi, Asuma spoke up. "About that, doesn't it seem strange? If they could sneak into the village like they did…wouldn't it be easy for them to find Naruto?" In the background they all could hear the faint sound of footsteps approaching and Kurenai could tell exactly who it was. "Itachi knows what Naruto looks like, could it be because Arashi is with him?"

"Shhh." Gai said making sure whoever was coming up wouldn't hear anything important.

"Kakashi…" The door opened to show the youngest Uchiha alive. Looking around he noticed the present company and that Kakashi was in bed. "Why is Kakashi sleeping?" Then turning to Kurenai he questioned further. "And what are all of you Jonin doing here with you Kurenai-sensei? What's going on, what happened?"

"Nothing much…" Gai retorted to the oddly clad boy. "…Really."

Suddenly Aoba burst into the room unaware of who was in it. "Is it true that Itachi Uchiha came back to town? And that…he is looking for Naruto?" Gai simply slapped his hand over his face as Aoba realized that Sasuke was standing right in front of him.

Sasuke turned to stare at him with a panicked look. "Baka…" Kurenai said under her breath as she watched her brightest student start to shake with rage. She suddenly thought back to the day she had him introduce himself to the new team. "_…and what I have isn't a dream it's an ambition that I WILL make a reality…I will restore my clan and kill…a certain someone."_

"_Itachi right?" She asked nonchalantly, not impressed with the emo attitude he was showing her._

_Then he just seemed to snap. "Don't you EVER say his name in front of me ever again!" He basically yelled, showing more emotion that she had ever seen in him. With a huff he sat back down and stared off into space, completely lost in his thoughts of vengeance._

"Sasuke don't…!" She said, but it was too late, he shoved past Aoba and rushed out of the building.

Zipping through the village Sasuke was still deep in thought even as he weaved through the villagers. 'That bastard came back to the village…and now he's after Naruto!? What could this mean?' He thought as he leapt up the side of Naruto's apartment building and came to a stop outside his door. Just as he was about to open it, Sakura fell out of it, dropping a bag.

"Sasuke-kun?"

"Where is Naruto?!"

"I just got here, but…I was going to give Naruto some ohagi." But before she was even done with her sentence he sped off in search of the blonde. "Well that was weird…"

Dashing past more people Sasuke headed off to the one other place he knew Naruto went. 'If Naruto gets caught by him, he's dead!' Slamming his foot down he came to a screeching halt outside of Ichiraku's hoping to see an orange blob sitting on a stool, when he didn't see him or anyone he knew he rushed inside. 'I won't let that happen, he won't kill anyone else I know!' "Old man! Naruto should have come here earlier. Do you know where he went afterwards??" He asked in a rushed and panicked voice.

"Naruto? He…oh yeah he and Arashi were in here with Jiraiya-sama around noon. They all ate ramen together and then they said they were going somewhere."

"Where!?"

"Somewhere outside the village…a place called Shikuba town or something like that. After that he and Arashi left with Jiraiya." Teuchi said after remembering what those three had talked about earlier.

"Jiraiya?"

The ramen master then smiled and held up three fingers. "Jiraiya of the Three Sannin. But by the looks of it, he's just some big white-haired old guy."

"White hair…and large." In a flash Sasuke was gone, leaving Teuchi complaining about not buying a bowl for the info. Speeding off as fast as he could Sasuke zipped out of the village gates and on his way to search for Naruto.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Over in the town that Sasuke was currently running to as fast as he possibly could go, Arashi was taking in the bustling village that they were in, the many vendors that lined the sides of the streets, the performers that seemed to be around every turn, and the game booths that were there as well. It really looked like a town make specifically for having a good time in. "This is…a pretty strange village Ero-Sennin. What are we doing here?" He asked as they walked into a very odd looking hotel.

Just down the street a beautiful woman in a dark blue tube top miniskirt that had dark hair and eyes was walking peacefully down the street when a pebble knocked into her shoe. Looking down she thought it odd and looked around, but she saw no one near her. But as she turned to leave she gasped as she was met with a swirling red eye.

Back at the hotel Arashi was getting annoyed that he was constantly getting ignored when he would ask a question, all he wanted to know was what they were doing in the village. He had an odd uneasiness about the place and didn't exactly want to be there longer than he had to. "Naruto, Arashi." He head the Sannin call out. "We're staying here for the night."

"Ehh? We can still walk some more!" Naruto piped in before Arashi could make a complaint as well.

"You two are my students aren't you?"

"All we want is that jutsu you said you'd teach us, Kakashi-sensei is out teacher…not you."

"That makes you my student baka!" The white haired man bickered back at his student not really wanting to get into the student transfer thing.

"**They're bickering like little kids! Ero-Sennin never did grow up."** To say Arashi was surprised was an understatement, he hadn't heard anything from Yondaime since he had woken up in the hospital. He had half feared that by getting banged up as much as he did he lost his ability to speak with him.

'Yondaime! Where have you been, I haven't heard anything from you in a couple days. Which is a long time considering you live in my soul!' Arashi thought in a happy tone, glad to know that his Hokage friend still had connection with him.

"**Yeah sorry about that, I've just been really busy coming up with a couple things. So I'll show you soon, just not too soon. I have to let Ero-Sennin have his fun teaching you guys you know."**

Arashi felt the connection fade, but he smiled when he realized that he would be getting something new. Just as he began to pay attention to what was going on around him he noticed a woman with long black hair and a blue skirt on walk in front of the entrance. She stopped and looked in, when she saw the group of three she winked at them, sending Jiraiya and Naruto into an idiotic frenzy. "Naruto!!!" Jiraiya said as he began running in place for some reason. "H-h-here are the keys to the room! Go upstairs and mold some chakra, train, and then go to sleep!" After handing him the keys he was suddenly gone in a flash and so was the girl.

In a glum mood Arashi basically had to drag Naruto up to the room in order to get him not to go chasing after Jiraiya to ruin his night. Plopping down on the bed they both flipped off their shoes and began to mold some chakra as some small training. "He better get back soon, I really don't like it here. It feels…off."

"It's always like this when we're with Ero-Sennin, deal with it man." Naruto said as he sat molding chakra while Kage Bunshin began appearing and doing the same.

Unknown to the two blondes Sasuke had finally gotten to the village where they were. "Just a little further…" He said as he dashed into the village, passing people as he searched in many different places. Elsewhere Jiraiya was taking the girl he had left with to many booths and bars, just trying to have a good time in general. But also he was playing his little game of 'get the girl drunk.' But also a strange blur was also moving around the village in much the same manner as Sasuke, just much faster. "You! Is there a large white haired old man and two blonde kids my age staying here?" Sasuke asked a clerk to a hotel with odd crystal balls and lanterns hung in the lobby.

"Two blondes and a white haired old man…?" The clerk said rubbing his chin. "I think I saw some people fitting that description come in at the shift change."

"What room!?" Sasuke blurted out in a panic. After hearing the room number he ran u the stairs and came to a halt in front of room 1 and brought his hand up to knock on the door.

Hearing a knock at the door Naruto looked up from his meditation, as he dispelled all his clones and slipped his shoes on. Arashi looked up as well wondering who it could possibly be, probably Jiraiya. "He already got dumped and decided to come back?" Naruto said to his friend as he walked to the door in an annoyed mood. "All right I'll be right there." He said after hearing another knock.

Looking down Sasuke saw the door unlock, thrusting it open he barged into the room. "Naruto!" But to his horror he didn't see Naruto, he saw some two random kids with their elderly grandfather. "You're not Naruto!" He said as he quickly turned and bolted away to find the others.

After opening the door Naruto seemed to freeze up, in front of him stood a man in a long black cloak with red clouds on it. He had black hair and two odd lines on his face, but what caught his attention was his blazing three tomed Sharingan eyes and a Konoha head band with a large scratch through the symbol. 'Sasuke…? No, who is he?' Naruto thought as his frozen expression changed into a glare. 'The same Sharingan as Sasuke…'

"To think this little brat has the Kyuubi within him…" Another voice said, causing Arashi and Naruto to go wide eyed at their knowledge of what Naruto carried. Looking up Naruto could see this other person was wearing the exact same thing as the man who looked like Sasuke, but he had a light blue complexion, head band that was from the Mist village like Zabuza, spiky dark blue hair and a huge sword strapped to his back with a skull on the pommel.

Naruto could easily hear Arashi jolt from the bed where he had been sitting to come stand next to Naruto with a glare on his face. But other than that he was absolutely frozen stiff. 'How does he know about Kyuubi?'

"Naruto-kun, you're coming with us. I didn't come here to hurt you Arashi-kun, but if you get in my way I will kill you." The Sharingan eye's man said sold and calmly.

Elsewhere in the village Sasuke was sprinting around when he felt something, something he hadn't felt in a long time. His brother's chakra. Just feeling it he couldn't help but become lost in his thoughts of his past.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

(4 years earlier in Konoha)

"_Nii-san!" An 8 year old Sasuke called out from behind his brother who was doing something. "Can you help me out with my shuriken training after school today?"_

_Looking up at his younger brother Itachi sighed. "I'm busy, ask Father."_

_Sasuke just frowned. "But much better with shuriken than Otou-san, even I now that. You always treat me like I'm a nuisance."_

_Turning completely around Itachi didn't change his expression at all but just shooed Sasuke away with a motion of his hand. Sasuke wasn't going to give up so he walked over to get his brother to help him, but was met with a thwap to his forehead. "Forgive me, Sasuke. Maybe another time." Itachi then stared off into space intently as if thinking hard on something. "I have no time to help you out today."_

"_You always say "Forgive me, Sasuke," and hit my forehead. Plus you don't ever help me out, not just today." Ignoring him Itachi simply walked out of the house to leave a smiling Sasuke rubbing his head._

_Later Sasuke was having a cup of tea with his father and mother before heading off to the Academy for a day of learning. "Otou-san…does Nii-san not care about me?"_

_With a sigh Fugaku stared at the ceiling as he answered his second son. "He's a bit different. He doesn't like interacting with people."_

"_Nani?"_

"_I don't know. Even I, his father, can't understand him."_

_Seeing the atmosphere of the room Mikoto felt the need to break the tension. "Here's your bento Sasuke. If you want to practice with your shuriken, I'll help you after you come back. I am a Jonin you know, I know my way around a shuriken." She said with a warm smile tat radiated motherly love._

_Grabbing the lunch Sasuke made his way for the door. "It's not practice, it's training!"_

_After a rather frustrating conversation with one of his Uchiha relatives Sasuke made his way to the Academy for the day. Once again it was a normal day at the Academy, Iruka went on with his lectures while Naruto and Shikamaru slept. Hinata and Arashi would keep sneaking glances at the other when they weren't looking, his fan club swooned over him, and of course Sasuke did the best in the class with Arashi coming in at a close second. He even stayed late had quite a fun time training on his shuriken with Naruto, during his time at the Academy Sasuke had begun to come out of his shell a little bit and was even trying to get himself into Naruto, Arashi, and Hinata's group of friends._

_It was already dark by the time he started heading for him, looking up he could see the full moon shining down on the village. "I stayed out way to late, Naruto no baka!" Suddenly he felt an odd sensation coming from behind him. Turning around quickly he could have sworn that there was someone crouching on one of the telephone poles, but apparently no one was there. 'What w-was that? I thought someone was there…' He looked down, then he realized something was wrong, something was definitely wrong. "The lights are out…it's not time for everyone to sleep yet." Running forward and around the corner into the Uchiha district he was met with the most horrifying sight that he had every seen._

_He was met with the sight of dead bodies lining the streets with blood covering the walls, every symbol of the Uchiha had been destroyed, and from what he could tell every one there on the ground was an Uchiha. "What is this?" He look off, running as fast as his little legs could carry him. 'What's going on?' Turning another corner he came upon the slashed up bodies of the elderly couple he had spoken with earlier that morning. "Otou-san…Kaa-san!"_

_Running into his house Sasuke found it to be dark like all of the rest, going in his threw his bag and shoes down and cautiously went inside. "Otou-san? Kaa-san?" He said as he searched the house, finally he came to the doors to the dojo. Reaching out to grab the handle he felt something. 'Someone's in there…' He wanted to go inside but his entire body seemed to be screaming at him to run away. 'Move…move…move!' He yelled out in his mind, forcing his body to step forward and slowly open the door to the dojo. With a creek the doors opened to reveal the bodies of his Mother and Father lying on the blood soaked floor in the only space where light could be seen. His mother was lying on her back with his Father hunched over her as if he had been protecting her. "Otou-san! Kaa-san!" He yelled as he ran inside and the doors shut themselves behind him._

_It was then that a figure walked forwards from within the shadows, into the light. His face was still shadowed but Sasuke could clearly see the ANBU uniform and the two lines on his face that only his brother had. "Nii-san! What's going on!? Why? Why…who did this!?" Suddenly a shuriken came slicing out of the darkness and grazed Sasuke's left shoulder. "Nii-san, what are you doing!?"_

"_Foolish little brother." He said coldly, it would be those words that would haunt Sasuke for years to come. Closing his eyes slowly he snapped them open as Sasuke felt something odd happen to his body. "Mangekyou Sharingan!"_

_All of a sudden Sasuke's world turned red and black, he found himself standing in the middle of the street where he had found everybody dead. All of the colors were in black and white and inverted. Looking around he began to see his relatives falling down dead with kunai sticking out of them and long katana gashes appearing on their necks. "My legs…" He couldn't move as more bodies fell before his feet, blood flowing around him like a river. Screaming he continued to see more of his family get cut down by the countless shuriken flying out of no where, "STOOOP!!! NII-SAN!! Don't show me this!!" He screamed as the form of Itachi appeared in front of him. "Why…why id you do this Nii-san?" He saw more Uchiha rush at Itachi with the intent on killing him, only to be slaughtered the moment they came within range of his blade. It didn't even look like he moved, but the sword slashes all over their bodies told a different story. Then he found himself back in the dojo but still within the inverted world. In front of him he could see his parents kneeling before Itachi as he raised his katana up to make the final blow. "Otou-san, Kaa-san! Don't Nii-san!!" With a swift slash blood spewed everywhere from his parent's bodies._

"_AAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" Sasuke screamed out in the real world as Itachi let the jutsu drop. Falling to his knees Sasuke held his head in pain as he realized that he was back inside the dojo in the real world. Itachi's Sharingan faded back to his jet black eyes as he looked down on his little brother. Collapsing on the ground, the only thing that Sasuke could clearly see was the end off the pool of blood coming from his parents. "Why…why did you…"_

"_To see what I was capable of." The murderer retorted in his emotionless voice._

"_What you were capable of? That was it? You killed everyone for that reason!?"_

"_It is important, you wouldn't understand" He replied as Sasuke pulled himself up and made a mad dash at him. In a swift and fluid motion Itachi slammed his fist into Sasuke's gut, making him double over on it._

_Falling to the ground Sasuke found himself staring into the face of his dead father as tears finally found their way out and down his face. 'Is that what's going to happen to me? Is he going to kill me?' Itachi's foot came down in front of him, making Sasuke start to crawl backwards towards the door. 'I'm scared. I'm scared!' He screamed in his head as he finally listened to his body and ran as fast as he could out of there. He was soon back on the streets running past dead bodies screaming. "Don't kill me!" With a faint sound Sasuke looked up to see the eyes that would haunt him forever, the eyes of his brother, the man he idolized, the man who killed his entire family. "Don't kill me…"_

"_You are not even worth killing. Foolish little brother…if you wish to kill me; hate me, detest me…and survive in an unsightly way. Run. Run and cling to your pathetic life."_

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sasuke now had a clear fix on where Itachi was and was going full speed with is own Sharingan blazing in hatred.

Back with the others Arashi was now staring straight into the eyes of the man standing before them. "Let's go outside." He said, and for some reason both of them complied still keeping eye contact with him.

Now they both stood there facing the two cloaked figures while both of their bodies were screaming for them to run. Yondaime was yelling to Arashi to run as fast as he could to find Ero-Sennin, but the Himura wasn't hearing a bit of it. "Itachi-san, it would be annoying if he moved around…perhaps we should cut off a leg or two. Plus, do I get to paint this place with the Himura's blood yet? I do still have that score to settle with the Himura!" Kisame said as he reached up and gripped the sword on his back.

"**Itachi…? Itachi Uchiha!? This is bad, really bad!! Also from the looks of it the other guy is one of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen of the Mist. That score he spoke of must be with Kenshi…so either he's Raiga or Kisame. I heard that Raiga used two swords, so this has to be…Kisame Hoshigaki! Kuso, I can't do anything! Arashi is frozen solid, he can't even hear me!"** Yondaime said from within Arashi, frustrated that something really bad might happen to Arashi and Naruto.

Itachi just stared blankly at the two as Kisame got a toothy grin on his face. "Then I shall." Walking closer and closer he raised his sword up a bit, but was suddenly stopped by Itachi's voice.

Yondaime was relieved that Kisame had stopped, if he had taken one more step, then he would have had to do something that he didn't feel was right at the time. "It's been a long time…Sasuke." Itachi said as everyone turned to see Sasuke standing at the end of the hall with rage blazing in his eyes.

"Itachi Uchiha." Sasuke said with venom dripping for the words.

"Itachi Uchiha?" Naruto stammered out, vaguely remembering that it was him that got them their apartments after the incident at the orphanage when they were 6. "An Uchiha like Sasuke…"

Sasuke continued to stare at the person that every ounce of hate in him had been focused on for the last 4 years. Putting his sword back into its strap Kisame looked over the visitor. "The Sharingan…and he are very similar to you. Who is he?"

Still not looking at Sasuke Itachi responded emotionlessly. "My little brother." Hearing this Naruto gaped in shock, he didn't even know Sasuke had a brother, also Arashi seemed to snap out of the daze he had been in after feeling the chakra in the people in front of him.

"I heard the entire Uchiha clan was killed…by you." The blue man said with a sickening smile while looking at the young Uchiha.

"Itachi Uchiha! I'm going to kill you!" Finally Itachi turned to face his estranged brother. The two stared each other down Sharingan to Sharingan, Arashi and Naruto could only watch at the moment.

"**Quick Arashi, you know what jutsu Sasuke is going to use! It might come in handy if this turns ugly and we don't know when Kakashi can teach you! Get it now!"** Arashi nodded his head as he quickly activated his own Sharingan and intently watched Sasuke.

Hearing the distinctive sound of a Sharingan activating behind him Itachi found out that the rumor about Arashi had indeed been true, he had achieved the Kekkei Genkai of the Himura. It could become troublesome in the future if they possibly failed to complete their mission. But he had other things to attend to at the moment, staring at Sasuke he followed the boy's movements and closed his eyes. Snapping them back open he watched his brother begin to flow with chakra. "Like you said…I hated you, detested you…and just to kill you, I've…" He said dramatically as he finished the hand signs and lightning erupted from his palm, unknown to him Arashi had seen it all and now had Chidori stored and memorized. Reaching up and grabbing his high collar Sasuke pulled it down dramatically as he began his charge at this brother. "…I've survived!!!"

"Chidori? So that's why…" Itachi said calmly to himself.

"I'm going to kill you!!" Sasuke yelled as he swung his arm around, taking out part of the wall in the process. Rushing at Itachi with all of his speed his made a streak of destruction on the wall from where his Chidori grazed it. "DIE!!!" He screamed as he thrust the crackling orb of light at his enemy.

But with a swipe of his hand Itachi brushed the attack aside forcing it to miss and take out the entire left side of the building, leaving a circular hole the size of the wall going straight through the room and outside. Itachi now had a firm grip on Sasuke's left arm at the wrist as he stared into the Sharingan eyes of his little brother. The distinctive sound of the attack died down as the tendrils of lightning stopped coming from the now entrapped arm of Sasuke. 'What happened? He deflected Sasuke's Chidori!' Naruto said as he turned slightly to see Arashi's Sharingan disappear. With a half smirk on his face Naruto knew what he had done and also knew how pissed off Sasuke would be later. 'Even now you're going to make a fool of him.' But looking back he could see that Itachi's grip was tightening on Sasuke's arm. "Arashi! This isn't good we need to do something!"

With a wink Arashi knew exactly what he meant, both of them formed a hand sign and called into themselves for the power they needed. Red chakra started to swirl around Naruto's feet and work it's way up his body, while an odd yellow glow started coming off of Arashi. "Kisame." Itachi said calmly as he saw what was happening.

"Their chakra is filling up this place. I see so this is Kyuubi's chakra, but what is the other one?" Kisame said while staring at the two powering up in front of him.

"YOU!!" Sasuke yelled out as he pulled his free hand back to strike the inattentive Itachi.

"You're a bother." He replied and with a twist of his own wrist a sickening snap was hear coming from Sasuke's arm as a bony bump appeared and Sasuke screamed in pain.

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled out as his friend fell to the ground. "KUSO!!" Going into hand signs Naruto planned on summoning some help while lightning started to erupt from Arashi's right hand as he started to use Chidori for the first time.

"Too slow!" Kisame laughed, as he swung his sword down next to them, to their horror both of their Justus disappeared and they felt themselves become very weak.

'What, I don't feel any chakra! What happened!?' Arashi said in his mind hoping that perhaps Yondaime could tell him, but he was met with silence. "Kuso, kuso! What happened!" Arashi said out loud as he and Naruto tried desperately to get any chakra.

"My Samehada can shave…and devour chakra." Kisame explained as the wrapped up blade seemed to move on it's own, like it was alive. The two blondes were stunned that something like that could be true. "It would be annoying if they used their petty jutsu. Perhaps we should chop off their arms before I get the Kyuubi brat's legs!" Naruto tried once more to get any chakra, but failed once again. With a panicked look on his face he watched as Kisame raised the blade up high and brought it down hard. Suddenly smoke appeared in front of the two boys and the blade was stopped dead in it's tracks. "Nani?" As the smoke cleared Arashi was surprised to see Gama blocking the word with his metal forearm protectors and also in full toad armor.

"You two…don't know me very well." A well known voice said from behind Naruto and Arashi with another puff of smoke. "Jiraiya the man…is better at winning a girl…than at being seduced by one! I wouldn't let a woman seduce me with her beauty. When you become great like me, women will go crazy over your own beauty!" Jiraiya said in yet another dramatic head motion just to make his point made. After his 'grand entrance' everyone there sort of just stared blankly at him, including Sasuke who was still writhing in pain.

"Yeah right! You were so excited over a simple wink from that woman!!" Naruto yelled out almost like he had completely forgotten the danger that he was in at the moment. "I don't think you should be showing off like that right now Ero-Sennin!!"

With the woman slung over his shoulder he looked down at the two in front of him giving him disapproving looks. "Come on now. Don't call me that in front of people."

Arashi felt like stepping in but rather decided on letting Naruto berate their sensei so that perhaps he didn't do the same thing in the future. "Shut up! More importantly, these guys aren't chumps Ero-Sennin!"

With a chuckle Kisame grabbed everyone's attention off of Jiraiya. "He is the great Jiraiya, who is praised as one of the legendary Sannin, after all. Even if you are an extreme lover of women…I knew that we couldn't hold you off that easily."

Arashi could only sigh as he watched on at Naruto's reaction. "What?! They know Ero-Sennin's true identity!!"

"Well, that's not really my true identity or whatnot…"

"So it would seem you dispelled the genjutsu from that woman." Kisame continue on from what he had been saying before Naruto interrupted him. Jiraiya turned away from the cloaked enemies and gingerly placed the woman down on the ground away from there could be danger.

Getting back up he had a seriousness that Arashi and Naruto had never seen before. "You're a disgrace to all men, using your eye to hypnotize a woman to separate me from the boys."

'Separate? But why?' Arashi found himself thinking, with Sasuke showing up he no longer knew why the others were after them.

"So you're after Naruto, after all." Jiraiya said with a glare that made Arashi shiver. After hearing that he remembered that they knew about Kyuubi and specifically wanted Naruto, not him. One more person heard this, Sasuke, and he was trying to think why Itachi would want Naruto.

Itachi had had his gaze fixed on Arashi for the last couple moments, he was remembering what he had told Kakashi during their short fight. He had said how he could only be defeated by someone with the Kekkei Genkai of the Uchiha, that excluded Kakashi but it didn't do so for Arashi. With Arashi having the Shekkeigan it posed some serious problems for his organization as well, and from his information on him he was ruining Itachi's plans. It was only supposed to be Sasuke who was left with a true Sharingan and no one else. Also since Arashi had shown even more potential that Sasuke, it made for a possible failure to Itachi's plan and he did not like that one bit. Shifting his gaze over to the white haired man glaring at him. "No wonder Kakashi-san knew. I see now, you were the source. It is an urgent order by out organization Akatsuki, to take Naruto-kun with us." The two continued to glare at each other as Gama disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"I can't hand Naruto over to you."

"We'll see about that." Itachi responded grimly.

"Very well, I'll do Konoha a favor and eliminate you two right here." Jiraiya said threateningly to the two Akatsuki members.

"Don't interfere…!" A pained voice said from behind Itachi, looking over they all saw Sasuke struggling to his feet as his broken arm hung limp at his side. "The one who's going to kill him…is me!" Everyone around just looked at him strangely, he was in no condition to fight and from what everyone had witnessed he was no where near Itachi in means of power.

"I have no interest in you right now." Itachi said coldly.

Clenching his good hand Sasuke bolted for his hated enemy full of rage. "Shut up!" A quick side kick from the elder brother send Sasuke flying back into the wall at the end of the hallway.

"Sasuke!" Arashi yelled out seeing him slam hard into the wall and slump over. Arashi then took off, and was planning on making a jump over Kisame to help out when Sasuke snapped up and yelled at him.

"Arashi, I said not to interfere!" Once again he slowly stood up while under the gaze of the man who murdered his parents. "I've told this to many people before, I'm sure you've heard about it. I've lived up until now…for this moment…for this day!" He yelled as his Sharingan blazed once again. With a guttural roar he charged at Itachi only for his punch to be effortlessly caught. Itachi's cloak hid the backhand chop just until it connected with Sasuke's chin, sending him spiraling right back to where he had just stood up from. Twitching as he sat n a crumpled heap on the ground, Sasuke refused to back down. This was the day he had been working so hard for, the day that would give purpose to his existence, and he wasn't going to lose. "I'm n-not through yet…"

"You cannot even form seals anymore." Itachi said as a hint of annoyance slipped into his voice.

"This is my battle…"

"Very well." Jiraiya could see that Itachi was planning on finishing it with this move and was about to leap into action when Kisame blocked his path with a smile.

"You heard him. This is a battle between those two. Let's not interfere, you're lucky I'm nice and aren't hacking that damn Himura to bits for what that clan did." He said with hatred dripping from his words as he glared down at a confused Arashi.

But at the end of the hallway Itachi had slowly made his way over to where Sasuke still sat. "Bring it on then!" Sasuke screamed as he stood up for one more attack with the last of his strength. It was short lived as Itachi drove his knee into Sasuke's stomach, making him cough up blood as he doubled over. 'Why…' He thought as he was pummeled again and again with a flurry of kicks and punches until he was held firmly against the wall by a powerful grip on his collar. 'The difference between us has not shrunk since then…what is the difference?' Itachi the released him and let him fall to the ground utterly defeated. 'What have I been doing up until now? What have I…' He thought before he was lifted again from his collar and slammed into the wall.

"You are weak." Sasuke's eyes went wide when he heard those words come from Itachi once again. "Why are you weak?" He then leaned in very close so that only Sasuke could hear him. "It's because you lack…hatred." Pulling back he closed his eyes as he had done when he faced Kakashi. Suddenly Sasuke felt a sensation he had only felt once before envelope his body as he gazed into his brother's eyes. Once more his world became a world of inverted back and white, seeing this Sasuke could guess what was going on but he had no clue what would be done to him in the world of Tsukuyomi.

Sasuke found himself alone in a world of utter darkness simply falling into an eternal hole. Then all of a sudden he was transported back to the Uchiha district of Konoha when the horrors had taken place. Opening his eyes he saw that he was once again inside of the dojo, except it was empty and his body was 8 once again. "Is this…could it be…?" Looking down at his small hands the truth couldn't be escaped as Sasuke began to shake in fear of what he expected was to come.

"That's correct." He heard Itachi's voice say from the shadows. "This is our house." He said again as Sasuke noticed the kneeing forms of his parents, just like he had been shown once before.

"Otou-san! Kaa-san!" He yelled out but was all in vain as he saw the shadowed figure of his brother appear behind them with his katana drawn and ready to strike. Also a second Itachi, a one in an Akatsuki cloak appeared behind Sasuke with a sadistic smile on his face.

"You are weak. For the next 24 hours…"

"Stop!"

"You will wander around hopelessly within that day." He said as the other Itachi brought down the blade on his parent's necks, spraying blood everywhere.

"STOOOOP!!!" He screamed in the dark world as he saw more Uchiha begin to be slaughtered.

"You are not even worth killing. Foolish little brother, if you wish to kill me…hate me, detest me…and survive in an unsightly way." Itachi said once more as Sasuke witnessed that slaughter of the people he once loved over and over again. "Run and cling to your pathetic life."

With a gasp Sasuke found himself back in the hallway. "RAAHHHHHHHHHHHHGGHHH!!!!" He screamed in horrible pain as he was brought out of the jutsu.

"Being cruel, as usual." Kisame remarked as he heard the screams. "He used Tsukuyomi on his little brother."

Sasuke then passed out from the emotional damage he had been given. It was at that moment that the other two boys couldn't hold back anymore. "Cut it out already, you bastard!" Arashi yelled as he and Naruto dashed past Kisame and were on their way after Itachi with Kisame hot on their trail once he saw them flash past him. Seeing this Jiraiya quickly went through several hand signs that looked just like a blur of movement in order to save his students from the Shark man. Hearing the incoming attack Itachi turned slightly to see what was coming while still keeping his hand around tightly around the unconscious Sasuke's throat.

Suddenly everyone was stopped dead in their tracks, looking down Arashi could see what looked like some sort of flesh appearing everywhere, coating the floor u to the ceiling. It also had everyone stuck in it as it finished showing up and the entire hall way was now what looked like a pinkish red tube. "What is this?" He thought out load while looking around questioningly.

"Ninpou Gamaguchi Shibari! Also know as the Toad Mouth Trap!" Jiraiya said with a smirk while crouching down with his palms pressed flat on the flesh. Over near Itachi the walls seemed to close in around Sasuke and pull him into it and away from Itachi to keep him safe. With a squishing sound the stuff at their feet began to form over top of Kisame and Itachi's feet, about to pull them down into it and devour them. "You're out of luck, Itachi, Kisame. You're inside my stomach now. I summoned the esophagus of a gigantic toad from the Myouboku Mountain's rock inn. You two are wanted criminals anyway, I'll turn you into food for this Rock Toad!" The Toad Sannin stared at the two Akatsuki members with a smirk that promised pain as he saw the flesh begin to latch onto Kisame's sword and hold it down. But he also saw Naruto about to try to move and break free. "Naruto! You need to stay still. Don't worry, this is my jutsu I can control it perfectly."

"Kisame, come." Itachi said with the smallest hint of worry in his voice. With little effort the former Mist Nin ripped his feet out of the pulsing ground and started to move, only to find that Samehada was still stuck. With a grunt and a hard tug the wrapped sword ripped out of the restraints that had held it down and raced past Naruto and Arashi in an attempt to escape.

"It's pointless, no one has ever escaped from this before!" Jiraiya said as he watched the enemies run around the corner and away from his sight. Putting pressure down where his hands were the meat shot out in a wave that moved after the others, also ahead the walls began closing in tightly as tendrils of flesh shot out at Kisame and Itachi as they began to run down the hallway.

Looking behind him Kisame could see the flesh closing in fast. "The wall of meat is closing in on us!" Stopping suddenly he whipped the sword around and cleaved all of the incoming tentacles in two and then turned to catch up with Itachi. Looking ahead he could see a window to the outside their one possible exit, but also the flesh was closing in ahead of them. "The wall is faster than us. At this rate…" He said as he watched Itachi close his eyes and seem to concentrate hard, then snap them open.

A sudden explosion rocked the hotel, wondering what it was Naruto turned to ask Jiraiya but he had already ran ahead of him. Pulling himself out of the flesh he and Arashi ran ahead with him to see what happened. Turning the corner, both boys came to a sliding stop as they stared at a newly formed hole in the wall at the end of the hall, that wasn't even the weirdest thing. Covering the sides of the hole burned what seemed to be several small black flames. "They're gone…" Naruto remarked simply.

Glaring at the black flames Jiraiya couldn't understand what had happened. 'I can't believe they broke through these walls…'

Now far away from the village Kisame and Itachi were leaping as fast as they could go down the river, as to erase their trail. "Why must we retreat? You could've…"

"There is no need to hurry with Naruto at his current level. Plus we might have found something out about Arashi that could be beneficial to Akatsuki." Getting an odd look from Kisame he continued. "When the two of them charged up to attack us, Arashi-kun seemed to glow with chakra, I didn't see it all but I believe that you had Samehada eat their chakra. If you could ask it what kind of chakra it was we might get the answer we need."

Closing his eyes Kisame began to converse with the large sword strapped to his back. "What!" Snapping his eyes open he looked at Itachi with a shocked look Kisame spoke again. "He said it was yellow chakra…but that's impossible! Only He had…"

"Yes he did, but nothing is impossible Kisame, only highly improbable. This does now make Orochimaru obsolete, but now we must hurry back to Leader-sama and come up with plans to capture both Kyuubi…and Yondaime Hokage. Also, I must rest myself somewhere for a while. I had to use Tsukuyomi, and was even forced to use Amaterasu." He said as his Sharingan faded back to his normal jet black eyes.

Back in the stomach of the Rock Toad the three conscious ninjas were looking at the black flames still burning around the hole. "What's this fire?" Arashi said as he leaned in closer to get a better look. "It's black…"

"Don't go near it!" The man with the red vest behind him said urgently. Holding up a scroll he could only stare at it with the questions still rattling around in his head. 'How did they escape? Also, what the hell is this black fire? A rock toad breaths fire, but its internal organ was burned." With a glare he put the scroll on the ground and rolled it out, after writing the needed seals on it he looked up. "Okay. Fuuinjutsu: Fire Suppressor!" As he said this he held back Naruto and Arashi as a stream of charka seeped out of the scroll and surrounded the flames. After all of the fire was covered by the chakra, it seemed to disappear as the chakra returned to the scroll and was sealed inside of it. Tying the scroll up Jiraiya placed it in his shirt for safe keeping. "This should do for now. Now we have to look at Sasuke."

The wall then spat him out of it, luckily Naruto had gotten there in time to catch him before he hit the ground. Looking around he also noticed the flesh melting away, soon it was all gone and they were in the destroyed hallway once again. Checking Sasuke, Naruto saw that his eyes were in fact open but they were blank. Like he wasn't there or something, it looked bad and Naruto didn't know what had happened. Suddenly a kunai shot past them and stuck in the wall in front of them. Snapping he head around when he head foot steps, Jiraiya's face was quickly met with the foot of a green blur. "Dynamic entry!"

"Gai!?!" He said just as the flying kick connected with his face, sending him flying into the nearby wall. Not really knowing what was going on Gai had been smirking the whole time, but when he looked down and saw Jiraiya and not Itachi his face shifter to a grim look.

After a few minutes Jiraiya not had a tissue rolled up and stuck up his nose to stop the bleeding and also had a nice bruise on his left cheek. "Umm, well…I'm sorry I it you. I was in a hurry and forgot my mirror. I used my forehead protector as a mirror, but it was blurry, and I let my burning youthful spirit take over, and I carelessly…Gomen!"

"Is that supposed to be an apology!? Jiraiya snorted out in annoyance.

"I'm not good with words…" Gai replied with his head hung, Arashi couldn't help but snicker at the sight.

"Forget about that now, you need to take Sasuke to the Hospital in Konoha. His arm and ribs are broken. Plus he suffered immense psychological damage from a doujutsu and was knocked unconscious."

"Ero-Sennin, is Sasuke okay?" Naruto said with clear concern for his friend and rival.

"Whatever Itachi did, he's taken heavy damage…"

"Kuso…what the hell. What did that bastard do to Sasuke, Ero-Sennin?!" Naruto stammered out with his fists clenched and a glare on his face. "I'm going to find those black cloak guys and beat them up this time! They want me, right?! Then I'll go to them!"

"Even if you And Arashi were to go to them right now, you're only going to get killed. Their level and the level of you two are completely different. I barely managed to get them away from you back there."

Arashi was feeling the same way as Naruto was, he figured why not go get them while they were still recovering. "Are you suggesting that we run and hide from them?!" He blurted out. "You want Naruto to shiver in fear every day?!"

"Shut up for a while!" Jiraiya responded harshly. "I felt your chakra before I showed up and they've probably figured out the things about you. They'll be after you too! You're weak…both of you! Compared to those two you're nothing, this is why we have to train!" Turning and looking at Sasuke the white haired Sannin turned away from his now very pissed off students. "Gomen, Gai. I thought I took his feelings into consideration, but I should've helped him sooner."

Looking at Sasuke in the state he was in now, Gai couldn't help but bring up the other news. "Kakashi was affected by the same jutsu and he is unconscious right now too. We don't know when he'll come out of it."

"Kakashi-sensei!?" Both of the boys shouted out, almost completely forgetting the little talking to they had just received.

"When a friend is injured…from the bottom of my heart I wish…that she, the medical specialist was here." Gai said still thinking of Kakashi and the state he was in.

"That's why we're going to look for her." Gai just looked at Jiraiya like he had granted his biggest wish.

"Are you talking about her, really!?"

"Yes, I'm talking about _her_. A Sannin like me, the healing specialist and slug tamer…the woman with the word 'gamble' on her back…Tsunade-hime!" He said with a wide smile on his face from just saying her name once again.

After moving Sasuke to Gai's back they made their way outside to get a move on, the hotel was wrecked so Jiraiya figured that sleeping outside that night wouldn't be too bad. Once they had gotten outside Gai slung Sasuke over his back and carried him on it. "Naruto, Arashi…your concern for Sasuke truly burns with the power of youth! I have a present for you two, Lee became strong with this!" Reaching inside his bag he rummaged around and whipped out two green jumpsuits.

Just as he was about to go into a speech on how it was the best training outfit ever, Arashi felt the desperate need to cut him off. "Thank you for the offer Gai-sensei, but we already have training outfits that work fine for us." Grabbing a hold on Naruto he dragged him down the road a bit so that the ramen lover wouldn't take them from his and perhaps fulfill Arashi's nightmare of seeing Gai's teeth 'ping' anymore that he absolutely had too.

"Well I guess fashion is lost of some people." Gai said to himself as he bowed to Jiraiya and started to make his way back towards Konoha.

As soon as he was gone Jiraiya practically ran over to Arashi. "Thank you so much Arashi! You have no idea how much I hate that suit!"

"No I think I do…"

With a hard laugh the Sannin started walking down the road calmly as the Sun began it's way downwards towards a sunset. 'We might be able to get a couple of kilometers in before it gets dark…' "Okay, let's go boys. Our journey can start now, and we can start on that jutsu hopefully by tomorrow!" They both jumped for joy and rushed over to their teacher as they walked down the road to truly begin their search for Tsunade.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Holy crap that took forever to write! First off I would like to say that I personally didn't like this part in the manga or anime very much. If you've been reading so far I'm sure you have picked up on my dislike of Sasuke, and with this basically being a Sasuke-centric part of the story it really called for a lot of will power to actually do it.**

**Well it's done and I'm baffled at how long it actually got. So enjoy and please please please review!**

**Ok while writing this I really got side tracked b/c my mind kept drifting on to future things and how I'm going to be doing them, such as the thing that'll happen after the Tsunade Arc and when I get to Shippuden. And Shippuden really got me thinking on how I could get it to work.**

**So I had to start another poll for you, the reader, to help me out. I need to know if Hinata should go with Arashi and Naruto during the time skip or if she should stay in Konoha and possibly train alongside Sakura with Tsunade. I leave in up to you, the reader. So review on it, I need votes on it so I can get the story plot line in my head correct!!!!!!!**

**So vote for either Hinata coming with the group during the Time Skip or not.**


	22. The Training Begins!

**Review Reply:**

**Cloudfightback:** Some of you ideas on Hinata actually might come up sooner than you think ;)

**Chosha Kurenai:** No, I don't think sweet gentle Hina-chan would go ape shit like Sakura, no mater how long she was around her! Also the Yondy knowledge that Akatsuki has now might come up soonish.

**Kazuma Watanabe: **Yeah it would have been fun to kill that little bitch…but that kind of destroys the rest of the actual plotline. So that is a no no. It's also interesting you brought up a sword thing with Arashi…

**Wingsofeagle: **Hey they still are only almost 13, they're going to be childish, even Arashi at times. I think that might show up more in this chapter. Thanks for the vote and keep on reviewing!

**Static44: **Thanks for the vote!

**Animeskid:** Thanks for all of the enthusiasm in your reviews!

**Royal Snaza:** Longest review ever! Thanks really, that long review was probably responsible for about 1/5 of this chapter getting written really fast like! Thanks and keep them coming!

**Unknown-nin345:** Well that is crazy you spent that much tie in thought on it but I don't think that idea would work with what I have going on. But hey keep up the reviews and hanks for the vote!

**Uchiha Kaz:** Yay! New reader! Thanks for getting around to reviewing, I went ahead and read your thing and left a review. Hopefully you'll go back and review some older chapters too, it's never too late to review!

**-CoinJager-:** Yay! Another new reader! Thanks for the review and vote! Also see the last sentence of the last review reply above yours!

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto!

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"Oh Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried out as she held onto the comatose boy's hand like it was a life line. When she had gotten the news that he was in the hospital after being found by Gai-sensei, she ran as fast as she could over to see her idol. She had been there with the rest of Team 8, but after a badly timed joke by Kiba he had 'left' through a nearby window. Shino had then excused himself shortly after to retrieve the downed Inuzuka.

After a while of simply stroking the Uchiha's unmoving hand and practically begging him to wake up, she felt a strong hand rest on her shoulder. "It's getting late Sakura-chan…" Lee said with concern in his voice, pulling his gaze away from his angle it drifted over to the sleeping form of his glorious sensei. He and Anko were both fast asleep in the hospital chairs that were next to the bed where Kakashi had been moved to. When Sasuke had come back with the same thing Kakashi seemed to be suffering from, the doctors felt it was best that the two be placed in the same room. "Would you like for me to walk you home?" Lee asked nervously hoping she wouldn't erupt on him.

Sakura looked up at the green clad boy and wondered why he would ask her such a thing. 'Why would he basically ask me out with Sasuke-kun right in front of me, is it to rub in the fact he was in the condition he is in? No, Lee isn't like that.' She then saw the expression on his face and saw that it wasn't one of spite, but rather one of concern and care for her safety. "Thank you Lee-kun that would be nice." Getting up she stole one last glance at Sasuke who even seemed to be scowling while in a coma.

After a while of walking they were out of sight of the hospital and Lee was thinking of something to perhaps get Sakura in a better mood. "I heard from Gai-sensei that the reason that Arashi and Naruto left was to accompany the great Jiraiya-sama in a search for Tsunade-sama." Of course being the book worm that Sakura was she instantly knew who they were. She had known that Team 7 had trained with the Gama-Sannin before the finals but thought it was a one time thing. Now they had been specifically chosen to go with him to look for another Sannin, when a thought sparked in her head and she light up. Lee could only smile as he saw her come to the correct conclusion. "Gai-sensei also told me that Tsunade-sama is the only person who could possibly heal Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-san. So all you have to do is wait for them to return and everything will be fine."

Seeing her house ahead Sakura had many thoughts running through her head, but looking up at the taijutsu master she had to get an answer to one. "Lee-kun…why are you telling me this? I thought you would be happy that Sasuke-kun is down…so that you might g-get closer to me…"

"Sakura-chan, I would never take advantage of you like that. Plus, knowing that Sasuke-san would be fine once Arashi and Naruto found Tsunade-sama would make you happy…and that's all I really want." He said with a nice-guy-pose, seeing that they were in front of her house he said his goodbye and sped off to his apartment.

Even after he had raced off Sakura couldn't seem to move, she was just staring off at the space Lee had just stood with a slight blush. "He…just wants to see me happy…?"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was a beautiful night and all of the stars were out, lying back on his back Jiraiya was having a good time watching them twinkle in the sky. After getting some distance from the village they had been in he had decided to stop for the night where they were now. The boys had fallen fast asleep basically the second their heads hit their packs making Jiraiya laugh to himself thinking how if they were exhausted now, they would be in for a rude awakening during their training.

Suddenly he heard a noise behind him and jolted up to see what it was, looking around he saw that the noise had come from Arashi who just seemed to be standing there. "Go back to bed Arashi, we're going to have a long day tomorrow." Not getting any response he looked closer as the boy slowly walked over to him and sat down next to him, Jiraiya noticed that something was off, his movements were completely different than Arashi's normal movements. Even the way he walk, it all looked more powerful, defined, something that demanded respect. But what he really noticed was that his eyes were shut the whole time. 'Is he sleep walking?'

"Ero-Sennin." Arashi said with his eyes still closed causing Jiraiya to almost jump back thinking his student was dreaming about him. "Do you really think we're going to find her?" Arashi said calmly while still just sitting there.

Looking at the boy strangely Jiraiya really had no idea what was going on. "Arashi, are you okay?"

He responded first by letting out a small laugh that didn't sound the way Arashi normally laughed. "You know you're one of the few people who still called me by my name even after I was chosen by Sandaime." Yondaime said to his sensei.

The white haired old man's jaw simply crashed into the ground. "B-But how is t-this possible! Did your seal break or something?" He stammered out as he went to grab onto him to make sure he was real.

"Don't touch him, it might wake him up. First of all no, my seal is still perfectly intact. But I've been working on several things in here and one of them was a way for me to communicate with the outside if I absolutely had to." He paused for a second to let the information sink in. "I found that during his sleep I might be able so speak and move around a bit. But it only will last maybe 5 minutes and I can only do this rarely, so I need to hurry."

"Yes, what is it."

"For starters…Arashi doesn't know the truth about Naruto and I. Don't tell them, understand?" Jiraiya nodded and allowed his old student to continue. "I do see it ironic that you get a second generation team of your old students." Arashi said with a small laugh. "Do you really think they're ready to learn the Rasengan? I haven't taught it to Arashi yet for a reason."

Jiraiya's playful face turned serious in a second. "At first I used it as a way to get them to come along…but with recent events I believe they'll need as much fire power as they can get if Akatsuki is going to be after them, so the Rasengan is perfect. Especially for Naruto, they both learn so fast I truly think they'll be perfect for it."

"Should we assume they figured out about me? If they haven't we should devote your attention to my son, I can train Arashi." Arashi said in a powerful voice.

"Itachi isn't stupid in the least, if he didn't figure it out then we really should have pursued them after they fled. No, they've gotten it. I'll give up peeping if they haven't. There's a festival in a nearby town starting tomorrow, I'm going to get them started with the training there. We'll probably be there until it ends, the boys can train and I can search for information on Tsunade." Jiraiya said in a tone implying that he had everything well planned out. "Hopefully they'll get the first stage down by the time we find her and get back to Konoha."

"No, I'd give them until the end of the festival," The Hokage said with a grin, knowing full well just how good the two really were. "I'm just about out of time doing this, it was great to talk to you after so long Sensei. I trust that you will do a good job training these two, there is something that tells me that they are going to be incredible if given the chance to be." Jiraiya took to heart what his beloved student told him, feeling his presence disappear back into his newest student.

Just then Arashi's eyes fluttered open and stared oddly at the Sannin. Patting the boy on the back he chuckled hard. "Looks like you were sleep walking a bit, now get back to bed." Without saying a word the Himura went back to his sleeping bag and fell fast asleep once again. Jiraiya then leaned back and drifted off to sleep himself with several things on his mind. '_I'll make their names more well known than the Sannin…Just you wait I'll make you even more proud of them Sensei.'_

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Hinata had just woken up from a very good dream; it was filled with her and Arashi simply being in love. Upon wakening she had an odd feeling, normally when she had a dream like that one she would be forced to tell herself that things like that would only happen in her dreams. But now it was different, she was with him now and instead of shunning her thoughts on it she was looking forwards to actually having it happen. With a very happy smile she got out of bed and went about her daily morning rituals. After having a small breakfast she decided that she would go visit Kakashi.

When she had gotten the news that Kakashi had been seriously injured resulting from a battle with some people while infiltrated the village she was very worried. She had wanted to go the day before but her father insisted on her staying at the compound that day. Entering the hospital she politely asked the head nurse his room and went up as soon as she had been told. 'I wonder if Arashi-kun and Naruto-kun are doing well, I hope they get back soon and don't miss their birthdays.'

Opening the door to the room she was surprised to see Sasuke in a bed near her Sensei's and Sakura sitting next to it, Hinata hadn't heard anything about Sasuke getting injured. Looking over at her own Sensei, the timid Hyuuga saw that Gai and Anko were fast asleep in the only two chairs on that side of the room. "Ohayo, Sakura-chan. Can I sit here?" She asked with a smile pointing to the chair next to the pink haired girl. Breaking her train of though Sakura nodded to Hinata, who sat down and looked over her. "Anou…what happened to Sasuke-san?"

Sakura frowned and kept her gaze on the downed Uchiha. "The doctors say they don't now exactly but it has something to do with what Kakashi-sensei has as well." After that there were a couple minutes of an awkward silence. Sakura had been deep in thought about what had happened the night before and Hinata didn't really know what to say to Sakura. Finally Sakura had to get someone, anyone's opinion on what she had been thinking about. "Hinata…how do you know when someone is the right person for you?"

At first Hinata was caught a bit off guard by Sakura's question, but after a little bit and some thought into it she found an answer that she thought was right. "I really don't know exactly, but for me I knew that Arashi-kun was the one for me because whenever I would even be around him or simply touch him I would get this warm and happy feeling that I've never felt anywhere else." She said with a smile, Sakura however didn't exactly like the answer. Reaching out she once again took hold of Sasuke's hand, but she didn't feel warmth like Hinata had said, she felt cold. She remembered all of the times that Sasuke hadn't even paid attention to her or talked down to her like she was just a waste of space.

"And h-how did you know that you loved him?"

"That's easy, you don't exactly know…it just sort of happens and all you want is for that person to be happy no matter what. Even if it's not with you, that's how I feel. All I really want is for Arashi-kun to be happy, and I know he feels the same way about me." She said with a slight blush thinking back to when they had confessed their feeling to each other.

Sakura took in everything Hinata had said, and it had been basically the same thing that Lee had told her the other nigh, did that mean that Lee truly loved her and just wasn't going over the top as usual? But then the other part caught her attention, the part of her knowing how Arashi felt. "Wait a second, how would you now that's how Arashi felt?"

With a smile at being able to tell the story again, she started the tale happily.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"_So you're after Naruto after all."_ The words Jiraiya had said the previous day kept replaying in Naruto's mind as they walked down the road on their way to some village nearby. Stopping in the middle of the road he looked up with a face that had thought written all over it.

"What's wrong?" The Sannin asked, already having wondered when this would come up.

"Hey, Ero-Sennin…why did they come after me?" Jiraiya just looked at him calmly with no response. "You know why, right, Ero-Sennin?"

With the wind blowing his wild hair every which way the old man turned to face his troubled student. "They're not really after you, it's the Kyuubi."

Subconsciously grabbing his stomach Naruto looked down at where his seal was. "I know she's a big-old Demon…but what exactly is she anyway?" He asked, while hearing a low growl coming from inside of himself at calling Kyuubi big and old, which consequently she was. "She's the one who attacked Konoha…that's why everyone fears it. So, why do they want such a thing?"

"Periodically in history Kyuubi has appeared and with her destruction and devastation followed her path. That's why people in the past feared Kyuubi as a natural disaster. I'm not exactly sure what they're planning to do with Kyuubi…or with Yondaime." He said looking over at Arashi to let Naruto know that he wasn't alone in what was going on. "But as long as you have them sealed inside of you…perhaps they wish to put Kyuubi's power under their control, also it was said that the power of Yondaime's yellow chakra rivaled some of the other Biju's. It may be a cruel thing to have those guys after you two, but that's fate. Still, I'm here to protect you, so don't worry." He finished with a smile trying to pick up their spirits; after all they were going to start learning a powerful jutsu later.

"Then we need to become stronger like you said!" Naruto spouted off with a smile.

"Exactly." There was just something about being around those two that made him smile like he used to with his old team.

"Okay! Let's get going and find this Tsunade person, have her save Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke, and start training!" Arashi yelled, getting into the conversation with a pump of his fist.

After getting the two calmed down Jiraiya had them walking calmly once more with him when Naruto spoke up. "Is the really beautiful lady that you want to interview that Tsunade person?"

Jiraiya couldn't help but laugh a bit and joke around with Naruto. "You're pretty sharp today. What about it?"

"She's one of those Sannin things that you're part of, right Ero-Sennin?" When he heard that Arashi could tell what his friend was getting at.

"So what about it?"

"How old is she?" Arashi asked for Naruto.

"The same as me." The 50 year old man said with thumbs up.

Both boys looked at each other with a frown and thought the same thing. 'She's a Baa-chan then!' Arashi then decided to possibly get some more information on their target. "So what kind of person is this Tsunade person?"

"Hmm, interested?" He responded and got a nod from both boys. "Let's see…in a word, she's unpleasant. A lot like that girl Sakura…" Naruto could feel the lumps on his skull cringe at that name. "Also, she likes to gamble a lot and is well-known in various countries."

"The if she's famous, we'll find her easy!" The Himura said with a grin, wanting to get ahead to the training.

"Yes, it's true that she is famous…you could even say she's legendary…"

"Legendary?" Naruto added, making Jiraiya get a wide smile knowing that he got to be dramatic once again.

"The Legendary…Sucker!" He said with a grin, remembering when he first gave her that nickname. "But even is she's the Legendary Sucker, we probably can't find her immediately. She doesn't like aging, so she has probably changed her appearance with some sort of jutsu. She's in her fifties, but she likes to look to be around her twenties or so. On top of that, according to some rumors…she changes her appearance to look like she's in her teens, twenties, thirties, forties…depending on the situation to run away from moneylenders."

"What's up with that? She sounds horrible." Naruto said, gaining a scoff from his Sensei.

"She can have her charm…" Naruto only could raise an eyebrow to the remark and chuckle. "Tsunade has likes to gable ever since she was young. But too bad she never had any luck or skill at it. She's known by that name since she's been duped out of her money by everyone. Plus she borrows money and runs…that sure does bring back memories."

"You can enjoy your old man memories later! So how are we supposed to find her?" Arashi said, slightly irritated that all they had done so far was walk and get attacked, then walk some more.

Seeing the irritation Jiraiya decided to have a little fun. "I'm not sure, we'll probably have to take things slowly, but there are many ways of doing it."

Arashi sighed hard and hung his head low. "So then we don't know how long it'll take…"

Naruto almost instantly picked up on why he was being this way. "Don't worry Arashi, we'll try to hurry it up so you can get back to Hinata-chan"

"Ohhh! I hadn't even thought about that Naruto! You're a genius!" Jiraiya said as he got in on the joking of the orange clad boy. Arashi simply stormed ahead while the other two followed behind him continuing the taunts, it really did bring the Sannin back to his old team, and he had done the same thing back then.

After about an hour of them walking and taunting Arashi he finally snapped. "I'm going to break you damn arm if you don't stop Naruto!"

Hearing the exact same threat again Jiraiya burst into laughing and fell to the ground. "No, don't do it again Himura!" He said between laughs, causing both of them to look at his like he was crazy. "On my old team, when Arashi's parent's started dating, Yondaime teased her so bad about it she used that same threat and followed through with it. Hahaha!" He said while still howling in laughter. "Arashi was in a cast for a couple months! Hahaha! I guess that threat's genetic!" After a minute or so he regained his composure and got up, looking at the village they were headed to below them. "Anyway, I don't intend on wasting out time out here, I'm going to use our traveling time on you two."

"What do you mean?" Arashi said, after now being fully cooled down.

"It's time to make you strong…Training!" He said dramatically once more, causing the two to grin from ear to ear.

"So let's start the training now!" Arashi proclaimed because he was excited to get going with the jutsu.

"Hold your horses there Arashi; this journey will be pointless unless we ask around for information on Tsunade as we train." He said as they approached the railing of the canyon walls that surrounded the village below them. "We'll do all of that in this city!"

After a while the three were walking down the main street of the village, there were stands everywhere and many things to do. "Wow!" Naruto said as he looked at all of the different food stands and parlor games and all. "I've never been to a place like this!" At his comment Jiraiya scowled, he new that Konoha held a festival every year twice the size of this one. Just it was the meaning of the festival that acted as a buffer from keeping Naruto away. It was the Kyuubi festival, held to commemorate Yondaime's sacrifice and the defeat of the Kyuubi. There was no doubt in his mind that Naruto had been abused on that day and learned to stay away from town and the villagers then. Looking over at Arashi, he had a similar look on his face that lead Jiraiya to believe that he had been with Naruto and learned the same lesson.

Deciding on letting the two enjoy the time they had the Sannin spoke up. "Playing is important too. Get plenty of rest and have some fun, then we can move on to training. The festival here is going to last a while…so we're going to do our training here, too."

Excitedly Naruto thrust his hands in the air before flipping his pack off of his back and fishing out his chubby Gama-chan. Patting the bulging wallet Naruto smiled big, Arashi still didn't understand why Naruto had decided on bringing every bit of his money with him. He had only brought a certain amount and had the valuable information from Yondaime to never take you wallet out in front of Jiraiya under any circumstances.

"Ohhh! You're pretty rich Naruto! That's so much money!"

With a grin Naruto took the bait and elaborated. "I have a lot of money, since I saved up little by little with my missions!" Flipping his bag on his back and grabbing Arashi he made a move to leave. "Ja ne!"

But just as Arashi had thought he was stopped with an overly dramatic motion from their Sensei. "Wait, Naruto! I'm going to keep your wallet! You too Arashi!" Jiraiya said as he snatched Gama-chan and made Arashi take his out and give it to him. While reaching for his wallet Arashi was very thankful he had listened to Yondaime and brought along a decoy wallet with a couple hundred in it compared to his real wallet with much more. After getting the two differently sized wallets Jiraiya looked down and frowned at the size of Arashi's, he had been hoping for more to be in there.

"What are you doing!" Naruto shouted as he jumped for Gama-chan only to have both wallets held over his head by Jiraiya.

Taking out a certain amount from each one he handed the money to the boys. "You can use this much."

Looking the cash over Naruto frowned and complained even more. "What? Only 300 ryou?"

Arashi just wanted to stay out of this one as he backed away and let the two go at it. "Don't "what" me! You know there's something called the three taboos of a ninja, right?" Getting a confused look from both of his students he continued with what he was saying. "You guys don't now? The three taboos of a ninja are the three desires that make a ninja go bad. These three desires are alcohol, women, and money." He said listing off the taboos.

"Then it doesn't have much to do with us!" Naruto retorted in a very agitated voice. "We're not twenty yet so we can't drink alcohol, we both have girlfriends so that category is out, and I worked really hard and it took a lot of effort to save up that money, so I don't want to use a lot of it! Plus Arashi is much better with his money than me, so no one needs to worry about him in that department."

Knowing that Naruto's points were all good ones Jiraiya had to think quickly in order to secure the funds he needed at the moment. "FOOL!" He said dramatically to try and overpower Naruto's logic in the situation. "Don't take the desire for money lightly! Once you start using it, you'll begin to use more! The power of money can be quite scary…the person we're looking for, Tsunade, has nearly ruined her life because of it."

With a grumble Arashi pointed out a flaw in Jiraiya's 'lesson.' "Yeah but you're easily tempted with the desire for women Ero-Sennin!" He said with a frown.

Almost like he completely ignored Arashi, Jiraiya took off his pack and tossed it to Naruto. "I'm going to go ask around now. Hold on to this for me. If you get lost, just use one if the tracking toads to find me through my scent." Nodding at Arashi they both left to go have some fun, turning back the Himura gave his white haired sensei a shot of his tongue for ignoring him and was off with Naruto. Seeing the gesture Jiraiya couldn't help but chuckle to himself. 'He's just like her, hating to be ignored and sharp as a tack. Those two really bring me back.'

Over the next couple of hours the two enjoyed themselves getting all kinds of snacks and stuffing their faces. After a while they played some parlor games and really raked the prizes in with all of the training they've had. Of course that was until Naruto got demolished in some sort of fish catching game that had Arashi laughing at his blonde friend when he had to be told that ninjutsu was forbidden in the game. The next stand they visited was a random mask shop, thinking it would be cool they both bought fake ANBU masks. Naruto got a nice fox one while Arashi found a wolf one. Turning to leave Naruto tripped on a rock because of the limited vision behind the mask and fell down hard making most of Jiraiya's stuff come flying out of his bag. "Watch out kid, you shouldn't wear that when you walk!" The shop owner said a little too late.

Still laughing at Naruto, Arashi felt like it was maybe time to find their perverted Sensei. "Pick that crap up Naruto, let's go."

With a nod he reached out to gather the so called 'crap', when he noticed that one of the things was Jiraiya's checkbook. "Hey, let's see just how much that dirty old man is in the red!" He said with a snicker as they both looked it over. "One, ten, hundred, thousand…" Then both of them nearly fell down. "That's a lot of zeros! Holy crap, he could've treated us to something if he has this much!" He then gathered the other things into the bag and slung it back on his back.

A couple more minutes of walking and Arashi found himself looking down at the little amount they had left. "Looks like maybe one more stand…" Still looking at the money in his hand, Arashi could only imagine the amount of time that they would be spending on training. Grabbing Naruto he ran over to a nearby shop. "Old man, give me three grilled squids, and make one a large adult size."

"Got sent on a squid run eh? Tell you what, I'll give you the kid's ones for free!" The shopkeeper replied after he saw the smiles on the kid's faces.

"Thanks a lot old man! You're great!"

"You think so? You just earned half price on the large squid!"

"All right!" They both yelled as they paid and went off in search of the old pervert.

After a while they eventually heard the perverted laugh of the Gama-Sannin, going to the source of the laughter Naruto was horrified to find him in a lavish seat with two girls practically all over him and several empty bottles of sake on the table in front of him. But what did it the most was a completely flat and empty Gama-chan. "I just love the young girls!" He said as he finally noticed the two boys standing in front of him. "Oh, did you two enjoy all of the festival already?"

Suddenly Naruto leapt at the man, and was soon standing on the table with his face right in front of Jiraiya's. "Say all of those three taboos of ninja to yourself again! You broke all three in one go, you BAKA!"

"Wait, Naruto…" He stammered out as the girls fled to escape Naruto as he jumped on top of Jiraiya and started beating him with the two squids in his hands.

"I'm not going to wait! You used all of the money I worked hard to save! You stupid stupid stupid…!"

"I'll pay you back!" Jiraiya yelled as he tried to stop the squidy pummeling, it was also then that two men walked into the parlor and saw the fight before them.

"You made Gama-chan flat!" Naruto yelled as one of the squids flew from his hand and squished against one of the men's white high collared trench blazer thing, leaving an inky stain.

"What the hell! Whatcha doing, fool!" Yelled the other man in a black suit, causing Naruto to stop his beatings and look at the two standing behind him. Arashi just moved to the side not really knowing what to do in the situation. "You put a stain on Bro's brand-name suit! Pay for it, 100,000 ryou!"

"100,000! For that ridiculous piece of crap!" Arashi and Naruto yelled out at the same time.

"Really, that stupid looking thing costs 100,000? That's a little on the high side, don't you think?" Jiraiya added surprisingly calm considering he had just taken his first squid beating.

"What? Are you trying to pick a fight?" The stained man said in a voice that sounded like he was trying to hard to be cool. "You shouldn't for your own sake." Arashi could barely contain his snickers, the guys had no idea who Jiraiya was and what they would be in for if they did get into a fight!

"Yeah, Bro is a former Chunin from Iwa…he's the killer ninja who was feared as the Legendary Dark Ninja!"

"Legendary? What?" Jiraiya taunted.

"It seems like you wanna get hurt!" The 'Dark Ninja' retorted with anger and raised fists.

Standing up Jiraiya extended his right arm with a cupped hand and glared at the man. "Arashi, Naruto…This is a good opportunity to show you the jutsu." He said as chakra started to spiral in his hand until a glowing, spiraling sphere of chakra was formed in his hand. "Watch carefully." There really was no need, because both boy's eyes were glued to the blue chakra orb. As the man charged, Jiraiya slammed it into his gut hard. Suddenly he was pushed back with a mighty force that sent him spiraling into a balloon stand on the other end of the street.

"Amazing!" They both shouted as they saw the jutsu they assumed that they would be learning. Still gaping at the move they both ran over to where the two men had painfully landed and looked at the damage. Jiraiya however paused for a second and snagged a water balloon out of the air and held it in front of himself with a smirk on his face.

"I went easy on you, but you guys are sure weak. Being from Iwa I'm sure you know my former student's name…The Yellow Flash." He said in an imposing voice that made the 'Dark Ninja' go wide eyed in shock as he realized just who he had been threatening.

"Are you really the Legendary…" The man said in a very pained voice, but was cut off by the very man he was speaking to.

Looking over at the quivering shopkeeper Jiraiya spoke up. "Hey, I'm sorry I broke your stand."

Quickly thinking the downed man reached in and handed Jiraiya his wallet so as not to get killed afterwards. "T-Take this for the repairs…" He said right as he passed out and Jiraiya gladly snatched the wallet.

"Here you go pops that should cover it all, also I'm going to take all of the water balloons and regular ones too. Is that okay with you?" The shopkeeper could only nod his head as Jiraiya collected all of the items that there were there in a large bag.

Staring down at the spiral rip that shredder through the cloths of the downed man Naruto was deep in thought. 'That was far more than just a simple palm thrust…what was that jutsu?'

"Naruto, Arashi, come with me. We're going to train." Hearing that the two Genin grinned widely and followed their sensei back up the rocky walls of the city to a secluded spot just over the ridge.

The two were literally bouncing with joy just waiting to start learning that cool jutsu they had just seen. "All right, it's finally time to start training!" Arashi proclaimed just waiting to be able to pull off what Jiraiya had done a little while ago.

"Here, catch." Arashi and Naruto responded by catching the water balloons tossed at them. Studying the red balloon with its yellow clouds Naruto gave the Sannin an odd look. Arashi had a faint idea what was wanted as he looked down at the blue balloon with white spots. Seeing the confusion in their faces Jiraiya broke the silence. "You two watched that jutsu carefully, right? What kind of jutsu did it look like?"

"I think the enemy was rotating a lot…" Naruto said after thinking back a bit.

"Yeah, that ball of chakra was spinning really fast and after you hit the guy with it there was a deep spiral rip in everything that it hit." Arashi said adding onto what Naruto had said.

'Naruto wasn't looking at the right spot, but with what Arashi said they might get the basics pretty fast. It looks like I'm going to have to separate them after all.' Holding his hand up to show the balloon in his hand he started the necessary stage just like Yondaime had taught him. "Yes, rotation is involved." The balloon began to have many different bulges on its surface all going in many different directions.

'He's rotating the water inside the balloon without moving his hand?' Naruto thought as he intently watched to try and see what to do later. Next the bulges got bigger until the balloon suddenly burst all at once spraying water everywhere.

Seeing them studying the effect of what he had done the Sannin went into detail about what they will be using. "With the tree climbing exercise, you learned to accumulate and maintain a certain amount of chakra in a needed area. While with the water walking exercise, you released a constant amount of chakra. You two have mastered those two skills, this time for the water balloon exercise you're going to create a flow with chakra. Simply put, a rotation like Naruto said."

"Create a flow with chakra?" Arashi said questioningly.

"I'll tell you the details of this jutsu once you're able to complete the basics. First, you accumulate and maintain chakra in your hand like in the tree climbing exercise. Next you release a constant amount of chakra like in the water walk exercise. Finally, you push and rotate the water inside the water balloon. Those are the things you must do in this exercise."

"I think I got it now!" Naruto yelled out as Arashi was still thinking on the subject at hand. "This training is to create a fast rotation inside the balloon to pop it, right?"

"You're getting sharper, Naruto." Seeing the Himura still staring at his balloon deep in though Jiraiya could tell that he was probably closer to actually figuring out the true way to finish this stage. "Arashi!" The boy's head snapped up at the call of his name. "Come with me we're going to the other side of the city."

"What! He doesn't get the train with me?" Naruto yelled in agitation.

"No Naruto, this jutsu is one that you need to come up with on your own. You two might help each other out and miss the lessons of self discovery this jutsu presents. One more thing, you two are forbidden from speaking of your training when you are together, like at night when you come back to the hotel to sleep." He could see the disappointment in both of their eyes, but this was something he had to do. Who knows, they might just come up with two different ways of completing it. "Come on Arashi, as for you Naruto its time for you to start. Get to it."

"Hai!" They both said as Jiraiya led Arashi to the other side of the chasm holding the city below. Naruto then looked down at the balloon in his hand and concentrated his chakra in his right palm.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sitting on his high stone chair in the shadowy room that could easily be called a throne room, a shadowy and darkened figure sat deep in thought as he ran his fingers over the three bridge piercings on his face. Hearing a noise he raised his ringed eyes to look at the visitor, she had a white flower in her blue hair that seemed off in comparison to the black cloak she wore that was adorned with red clouds. "Nagato…" She started saying before she as cut off.

"What have I told you about addressing like that! It's Leader-sama now! I've been over this with you before!" He said angrily while slamming his fist into the palm of his other hand.

"Gomen, gomen nasai Leader-sama. But Itachi-san and Kisame-san have returned from their mission and say they have an urgent message for you." She said while in a low bow.

"Fine, send them in." He said while shifting he weight to rest his arm on the arm of his chair and leaning his head against his hand. When she left the other two members of Akatsuki moved in and into the leader's agitated glare. "What are you two doing here? You should have contacted the base through an astral link."

Now standing before their imposing leader Itachi spoke up. "This information is too valuable to our cause to be transmitted that way." The leader raised an eyebrow to Itachi's response, letting him know to continue. "Orochimaru is no longer needed for this organization…"

"I know." For once Itachi broke his always calm demeanor and showed a look of confusion. "During his invasion of Konoha, Zetsu was tracking his movements. Orochimaru attempted to use Edo Tensei to revive _him_ to fight against the Sandaime Hokage but failed. Later on Zetsu sensed a dispersion of yellow chakra somewhere in the vicinity of Konoha. So we know that the source must be somewhere near Konoha, Sasori and Deidara have already been dispatched to deal with Orochimaru."

Itachi couldn't help but smirk, apparently their finding would be valuable after all. "That is all new information to us, but our report still will provide enough to demand a personal visit." Now the Leader was very interested, but was also wondering where the Kyuubi container was. "We tracked the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki and engaged, but failed in capturing him. He is now under the protection of the Sannin Jiraiya. But the information has to do with what we learned during the engagement, the other person along with them was found to be the source of the yellow chakra Zetsu sensed."

"WHAT!" The Leader hadn't even thought that Yondaime could have been found inside of another Jinchuuriki. "Who is it?"

Kisame then stepped forward, not really liking that Itachi was making the entire report. "He's the last brat of the Himura clan of Konoha. Arashi Himura, if I heard right. But with him being with the Kyuubi brat and Jiraiya, it will make capture very difficult and will require some time to properly plan it all."

The Leader was astounded that Yondaime Hokage had been found, and already several plans were beginning to formulate in his head. But what he was told next shattered every one of them. Itachi cleared his throat and continued where Kisame had left off. "This target may be the hardest to achieve. He has activated the Legendary Shekkeigan, this is a major problem for us. If he were to get within range of Hidan…the entirety of our plans would be ruined."

Groaning in anger the Leader was hunched over in thought. "You're right Kisame, this is going to be very difficult, even more so if he is with Kyuubi _and_ with Jiraiya. We're going to need a lot of time to get this right."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Yatta!" Arashi shouted out as he felt the water inside the balloon responding to his push that he was exerting on it. It had been a couple minutes since he and Jiraiya had come to the spot he would be training at. Exerting more force on the balloon he could see it stretch a tiny bit, but was no where near popping like his Sensei's had. "I think I'll be able to pop this easier than I thought!" He proclaimed.

"Well if you really think so, I'm going to go back and supervise Naruto for the rest of the day. After today you two are on your own, if you have any questions…figure them out for yourself. Or if you really have to, ask Arashi…I mean Yondaime. Man that is going to get frustrating having you named after him." With a wink, he disappeared in a gale of wind a leaves.

Appearing suddenly Jiraiya almost gave Naruto a heart attack when he showed up. After a few minutes he got almost exactly the same reaction out of Naruto as he had from Arashi at feeling the water moving inside the balloon. Feeling like a nap the Sannin decided to have a bit of fun with the boy. "Well if you think you'll get it in a snap, then I'll rest for a bit until you pop it…" Sitting down he pulled out a large gourd full of sake. "…with this to accompany me." Getting the expected reaction out of Naruto he shooed him back to training and lay back against a tree.

"At this rate you won't even have a chance to nap."

"You really think so? Wake me up when you pop it then." Jiraiya said smugly.

"Just you wait. I might even master this jutsu today if I can keep this up!" He said as he went back to pushing his chakra into the rotation of the balloon.

The Sun was now close to setting and Arashi was getting nowhere in popping the balloon, he had barely been able to get the stretching any bigger than he had initially done. "Kuso! Nothing's happening! I've been at this all day and I can't get it to stretch any further!" He said in much agitation at his inability to pop the damn balloon. 'Yondaime, what am I doing wrong?'

"**As frustrating as it is you need to do this on your own, like Ero-Sennin said its about self discovery. I'm sorry but I won't give you any answers or shortcuts."** Yondaime said trying not to come off mean about it.

'I get it, I have to do this on my own…geeze.'

Elsewhere Naruto was leaned over panting after trying to do the jutsu. "Why doesn't it pop?" He suddenly yelled at the balloon, waking Jiraiya from his slumber.

"Oh, were you able to do it?" The white haired man said jokingly as he woke up, causing Naruto to gulp hard when he realized he had woken the man and was probably going to get made fun of.

"Well, how should I explain…? I didn't quite do it yet, but…"

"Looks like I had a nice long nap instead of a short one."

"Hey, what do I have to do to pop this thing?" Naruto asked in a pleading voice.

"I told you that I can't give you any details until the balloon pops." Seeing the disappointed look on his student's face and also remembering what he had to do when he first learned the jutsu, he decided to give the boy one hint. "Fine. Normally, you're supposed to find out the trick by testing different methods over and over and master the know-how of the jutsu on you own."

"Yeah, yeah?" Naruto said excitedly, knowing that Arashi hadn't been given any hints because their Sensei had returned within minutes of leaving.

"I'll give you a little tip for this jutsu. Try rotating the water." Naruto quickly complied, and the water inside bean slowly rotating just enough that you could tell from looking on the outside. "Clockwise or counterclockwise, which direction did you imagine rotating the water?"

"Um…Counterclockwise."

"Come here for a second." With a nod the Uzumaki walked over to him and was met with Jiraiya inspecting his head. "Just as I thought. You're a clockwise rotation type." Naruto just stared at him with an odd confused look. "To mold chakra, you need to mix two energies…so everyone unconsciously rotates those energies and molds chakra. During that process, the direction of the rotation, clockwise or counterclockwise, differs among people. So for this exercise, if you imagine the rotation direction opposite of what is within you inside the water balloon, the flow of chakra will branch and repel so the rotation doesn't speed up. You're basically cancelling out your chakra flow. You're supposed to figure that out from your senses normally…"

"But, how did you find out I was a clockwise-type?" Naruto asked wanting to now what features distinguished him as that type.

"From the whirl of hair on your head. If your hair whirl is clockwise, then you're a clockwise-type. If it is the opposite, then you're a counterclockwise-type. Easy, isn't it?" Jiraiya said with a grin at the simplicity of the concept. "So the tip is when you imagine the rotation, imagine a clockwise rotation."

"I never was concerned about such a thing before, but…"

"But this jutsu is very well suited for you." He then leaned down with a playful look on his face. "You don't have to form any seals, you only need chakra…so there's no need to remember any tedious seal formations. Even an idiot can do this."

Naruto shot out at him angrily with a fist raised. "I'm not an idiot! I'm the one who'll become Hokage one day! This should be easy now that I know that trick, I can master this jutsu in three days now!"

"Three days, eh? Don't be a fool! This is a ninjutsu that Yondaime created himself. It took him three whole **Years** for him to complete this jutsu! This jutsu's difficulty is ranked second highest out of six levels. It's an A-rank super high level ninjutsu, to master it you need to go through a three-step training regimen. This stage is just the first stage, you've done nothing all day and you thing you can master it in three days?"

Naruto was now not even listening to Jiraiya anymore, he was instead intently looking at the balloon while in deep thought. 'Yondaime Hokage's jutsu…it took him three years to master.'

"But then again there's no use explaining it anymore to a guy who can't even complete the first step. You need to try on your own, now." Walking away towards the city he looked back to still see Naruto staring at the balloon. "Well I guess it's only fair I go tell Arashi that tip, then I have some information to gather. What will you do?" After a few moments Naruto snapped out of his trance.

"I won't go back quite yet, don't worry I know where we're staying."

"Okay then, don't overwork yourself." He then left to find Arashi. After explaining the concept to him he found out that he was a counterclockwise type and then left. Now the pervert was walking the streets of the city thinking about the day. "Now, what will those two do?" No sooner had the words left his mouth, had his attention been grabbed by a bar with lots of young girls in it. Letting the thoughts of his students fly out of his mind, they were replaced with much more dirty ones.

The next morning both boys trudged out of their rooms to find the bathroom, with his sleeping cap still on Naruto was greeted by a cat when he left the room. After one of the people who worked there called the cat away from them and directed them to the bathroom the two went their separate ways to their separate training grounds. Upon getting to his area Naruto marked a tree to start his tally of days he was working on the jutsu. 'I don't have three years to waste.' "Okay! I'm going to work hard on my training today!" About halfway through the day Naruto had gotten some stretching of the balloon thanks to the tip he received the night before, but it still wasn't enough to pop it. "Why isn't it popping?" The next ay it went basically the same, except he was getting progress. The balloon now looked more like a disk than a sphere from that force the water was rotating at.

Over with Arashi, he had achieved the same results, the rubber on the balloon was stretching out like a disk, not like how Jiraiya's balloon had looked before it popped. "KUSO!" 'It's been three days already since I heard the trick from Ero-Sennin. The rubber is stretching out a lot, but why isn't it popping? What am I doing different that Ero-Sennin!' He thought as he ended for the day full of irritation at his failure to pop the balloon.

Waking up the next day was a pain for Arashi, he had the misfortune to get the futon between the other two, so he was rudely awakened by Jiraiya's hand landing on him as he moved in his sleep. "Oh, he reeks of alcohol." He said under his breath. Getting Naruto up they headed out to get some breakfast, but sitting down they really didn't know what to talk about. They had been forbidden to speak of their training, and nothing new had come up so they basically sat there in silence waiting for their food to arrive. Once it had, they both smiled as they reached for their chopsticks. But just after picking them up both pairs fell back down to the tray after an immense pain shot through their hand. "What the?" Arashi said out loud as he looked at his now shaking right hand. Reaching back for the sticks Naruto was pained again as they fell once more. "Looks like we eat with our hands for now." He said while still in pain, Naruto nodded and the both dug in while getting odd looks from the other people there.

Now that he was up at the training grounds Arashi looked more intently at his hand as it shook. 'What the hell? What's wrong with my hand?' Trying not to think too much on it he went to work on the balloon. After a couple hours he was starting to get very frustrated. "KUSO! It's been five days already since I heard the trick from Ero-Sennin. The rubber is stretching out a lot, but why isn't it popping? What am I not doing that he did to make it pop!" Then the pent up frustration of the majority of the week finally snapped. "KUSO!" He yelled as he hurled the balloon at a nearby tree, upon hitting the tree the water sprayed out at the sides violently. Seeing that reaction Arashi noticed something, picking up another balloon he tossed it at the tree again and saw the same thing happen. "THAT'S IT!" He yelled as raced back to town to find Jiraiya.

"AH HAHA!" Jiraiya was once again in the same place he had been all week and was really enjoying himself when his fun was suddenly interrupted.

"Ero-Sennin!" Arashi yelled as he came screeching into the bar and almost collided with a waitress.

"What could it possibly be Arashi? Can't you see I'm busy…"

"I got it! I can pop the balloon now!" Upon hearing that Jiraiya went wide eyed, no one should be able to perform stage one in a little less than a week. It had taken him a bit over a month to do it, there was no way that the Himura could have done it. Grabbing the boy he ran back up to where Arashi had been training, completely forgetting the fun he had been having.

"Show me it, you're not going to pass to the next stage until I see you do it." Arashi nodded and picked up a balloon, with a concentrated look on his face he pumped his chakra into it. Suddenly little bumps started to appear on the surface as the balloon began to pulsate, suddenly the bumps got big and tore the balloon into many pieces, spraying water everywhere just like Jiraiya had done. All the Sannin could do was gape in astonishment, he had done it correctly with one hand just like he had done it. "How did you come to do that?"

"Well earlier today I got really pissed off at not being able to do anything but stretch the rubber out horizontally like a disk. So I go pissed and threw the balloon at that tree like this." He then chucked a balloon at the tree causing it to burst like it had earlier. "So when I saw it shot water off to the sides, I thought about it and realized that it did it because of the one direction it was traveling against the truck of the tree. Thinking back I remembered your balloon having lots of little bumps on it while mine was stretched out in one direction. Taking the control I gained from doing one direction I made several different directional flows within the balloon…and it popped after that." He said with a smile. "Here I'll do it again…" Suddenly his hand felt like it was on fire with pain.

'He's overworked his chakra network in his hand…' With a smile he looked down at his student. "You probably don't have any idea how well you've done. When I learned this step from Arashi, it took me five weeks. While you got it in five days! You've got the rest of the day off, but don't tell Naruto you did it." With a nod they went back to the hotel and Arashi fell fast asleep as soon as he laid down, with a bigger smile the Sannin left to go back to his fun.

'Even if I don't have to form any seals…' Naruto thought as he went to the bathroom the next morning, everyone was still asleep so he had decided to get some training done earlier. Watching the toilet flush he saw the spiraling water and was trying to use it as inspiration but was getting nothing. Stepping out he saw the cat from a few days earlier chasing his water balloon. "That's not your toy." He was silenced as the cat began to bounce the balloon back and forth between his paws until the balloon suddenly burst.  
"That's it!" With a grin he ran back to the room with another balloon in hand. Standing over Jiraiya Naruto spoke up, waking Arashi in the process. "Wake up already! Hey, Ero-Sennin!"

"Oh, Naruto. Good timing, bring me some water." The self proclaimed mega-pervert said to his student.

"Water?" He said with a smile. Arashi then watched in awe as after a few quick hand movements and a pop, water sprayed all over Jiraiya, making him wake up fully. "Stage One, Complete!"

"Complete?" Jiraiya said once sitting up and seeing Arashi's astonished face. "Then show me."

"All right!" Naruto said with the balloon in his left hand and his right pulled back. "Watch closely."

'He's using his left hand?' The Sannin thought in confusion.

"HA!" Naruto then began to rotate the balloon with his left hand, while chakra could be seen swirling in his right palm like there was a balloon there as well. Reaching out and striking the balloon with his right hand as fast as he could he moved it around, hitting it at different angles and churning the water inside. "Go!" Then grasping it with both hands the balloon bulged from the chakra flow inside and then suddenly burst like Arashi's had. "Yatta! See? See?" He then looked up to see his Sensei back to being half asleep. "He's sleeping!"

After a pounding, the three then moved out to the dining area where they all sat at a table. "Gomen…I'm tired from the information gathering I've had to do these past few days and nights." The other two just looked at him suspiciously, especially Arashi, who had seen what he was really doing. 'But…I'm very impressed with Naruto, he came up with the idea of holding the water balloon with his left hand and hitting it with his right hand multiple times to rotate the water inside. It's a weird idea, but he is a weird kid and weird isn't always bad.' "Yes, yes…good job for coming up with the idea. It's all thanks to me."

Seeing the cat at his feet Naruto grinned and picked him up. "Actually it's thanks to him. I saw him playing with the water balloon and noticed something. Since he hit it with his front legs so many times the water inside was rotating in multiple directions. Then the idea struck me."

"What kind of idea?" Jiraiya asked while Arashi listened on intently wanting to know how his friend came up with a completely different method of popping that balloon.

"I remember when you first popped the balloon for me, the water balloon had a lot of bumps on it. Until now, I've been rotating that water in one direction. I realized that your water balloon became bumpy because you were rotating the water inside it in many directions. So after thinking up some ideas, it popped!"

'It looks like he still can't make his chakra rotate randomly with one hand like Arashi…but he thought of a good idea..'

"I rule! Oh, I forgot! Don't steal my idea." Naruto said with a big smile.

Jiraiya then burst out in laughter. "Naruto, you don't have to worry. He completed it last night, and in a completely different method, cats and trees…I never would have thought to get inspiration from those!" Seeing Naruto's slight disappointment at being beaten in time by Arashi, Jiraiya decided to tell him the same thing he told the Himura. "Just to let you know Naruto…it took me five weeks to get this far!" Seeing the smile on his student's face he couldn't help but smile. "You've both completed the first step."

"All right! Do you want me to show you again?" He proclaimed just as Arashi had, and then he felt the same pain that Arashi had felt the other day.

'The over use of chakra must be hurting their chakra circulatory systems.' He thought with an intent stare at Naruto that he shifted to Arashi. 'The next step won't be as quick I think.' After getting dressed all three went to where Naruto had been training so far. "Okay, now we'll start with the second step."

Naruto instantly went off. "We can finally do some real training now!"

"Here." Naruto looked up to see a white ball coming at his face, catching it he looked over to see Arashi holding one as well.

"A rubber ball?" Naruto said a little bit disappointed. "Another boring exercise?" He blurted out with clear agitation while glaring daggers at the Sannin.

Pulling another ball out of his shirt Jiraiya held it out for them to see. "This time, you have to pop this." Suddenly the ball vibrated furiously as a gust of wind was shot out, the ball then bumped out like the water balloon had and then exploded violently. Naruto visibly gulped after seeing the power behind the pop. "It's about 100 times tougher than the water balloon." Glaring at his Sensei, Arashi held out his ball. Focusing his chakra inside in dozens of different directions he pushed as much as he could into the ball. With a final release of the pressure of chakra the ball bumped out a tiny bit and then…nothing. Naruto silenced a giggle that threatened to surface, but with a nod of his head he went into his own stance. Smacking his right hand against the flow of his left had a multitude of times he then brought both hands together and released the chakra. Once again tiny bulges appeared but nothing after that either, it had been more that Arashi's by a fraction that neither of them had seen. "The first step emphasized rotation. The second step emphasizes power. Since there's no water inside, it's harder to imagine the rotation of chakra…so it's harder to rotate your chakra."

"Yeah, it's a lot harder." Arashi said with a frown on his face. "Plus, I don't think throwing this at a tree will give me any ideas."

"Now then, I'll go gather some information. Arashi, you can go back to your spot or you can move a little bit away from Naruto, you know just to give yourselves enough space to think clearly and have no distractions."

"Wait!" Naruto yelled out. "Let's train together, since we haven't done that in a while!" Jiraiya turned around to give him an annoyed look and saw Arashi nodding his head in agreement with a smile. "You can even take a nap here." As much as Jiraiya really wanted to supervise their progress he once again knew that you had to do this on your own.

"Don't demand attention like that. Maybe you have the wrong idea here. I said that I would teach you two a jutsu and be your teacher, not your father, or your best friend. I'm not here to hold your hands, you two have to do this by yourself…or not at all. Stop acting like children and start acting like a professional Shinobi." Both boys looked sort of hurt by his statement, especially Naruto. Just hearing the word father directed at him stirred something inside of him he had long forgotten…the longing to know who he was.

"Well…then can you at least teach us a trick like you did last time?" Arashi said after seeing Naruto's demeanor do one of his rare shifts to unhappiness.

Sticking out his hand Jiraiya only said one work. "Money…" That word seemed to echo around them, driving the two over the edge.

Naruto seemed to explode on the old man. " "Act like a professional Shinobi"? You're just a dirty and greedy grown-up yourself! You're not a professional Shinobi at all!"

With a scoff the Gama-Sennin went back to the city to collect 'information' leaving the two to start their training. With a wave Arashi moved off to out of sight of Naruto to do his own training. That night Arashi lay on the ground with that still un-popped ball next to him he was trying to think clearly so he took up his favorite thing…star watching.

Looking up he could feel his right arm pulsating and in pain, but looking up at the stars he was calmed and everything was cleared from his mind. But gazing up there at the white specs in the sky he couldn't help but think of the beautiful eyes of his love back in Konoha. "Hina-chan…" He said after a heavy sigh, it really surprised him that this was really the only time he had thought of her in the past couple days. But he had his mind occupied with that damn water balloon so now that his mind was cleared he could think. With it cleared his thoughts instantly went back to the thing that was behind everything he did.

With a smile he pulled out a sheet of paper and scribbled down something with a smile. Then with a flash of silver and a puff of smoke a small silver furred wolf cub with a black bandana wrapped around its neck appeared in front of Arashi scratching it's ear. Looking up it saw Arashi and stood up straight at attention. "Hi Arashi-sama! Otou-san said I might be called soon. What do you need from me?" The pup said in an excited voice for being summoned by the one chosen to summon them.

"Otou-san?" Arashi asked, he had never summoned this wolf before and was curious.

"Oh yeah, hi I'm Rok son of Ragna. So what do you need me to do?" He asked while bobbing up and down hyperactively.

Slipping the paper under Rok's bandana he pulled out a sock from his bag and let the pup sniff it. "I need you to go to Konoha and deliver the paper to a Hinata Hyuuga. I'm sure you can sniff out Konoha and once you get there you can find her." He said with a smile, he was sure happy he had asked her for something to get a good scent on a while back.

Raising his head up to the wind, Rok took in a long sniff and howled. "Okay, I got her scent Boss!"

"You can get her scent out here!" Arashi blurted out in surprise.

Rok then let out an odd sounding wolf laugh. "Come on, what do you think I am? A dog? I'm a wolf…a Nin Wolf, we can pick up scents just about anywhere. Plus Otou-san had this scent on him one time when he came back from being with you. Well I'll go get it to her." And in a burst of dust he was gone and out of sight.

'Damn he's fast!' Arashi thought when his right hand was wracked with an intense pain. 'This is so much harder that with the water balloon, and what's with this pain?'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It's been three weeks since Naruto and Arashi had first been given the rubber ball to pop. In their eyes absolutely nothing had happened, but the times that Jiraiya secretly observed them he clearly saw the progress they had. It was still not enough to pop it but the larger sizes of the bulges were obvious to the Sannin, Naruto's was a little bigger than Arashi's but they weren't near each other so it really didn't matter. "Kuso! How many days have I been repeating the same thing over and over?" Naruto said to himself out load. The voice of Jiraiya when he scolded him about wanting him to train with him replayed in his head as he frowned at the memory.

"Hey, Naruto." Naruto hear behind him in a voice that could only belong to his perverted Sensei.

"What do you want, any reason you actually came up here?" He asked, clearly in a pissed off mood.

"Go buy me some food down at the city." Getting a rather loud complaint from Naruto Jiraiya continued. "You're a trainee learning a jutsu from me, you know."

Later Naruto had picked up some food for the three of them and was on his way back, deep in thought. 'He teaches me nothing, but he acts like a teacher at times like this.'

Then something grabbed his attention. "Otou-san! Buy me some ice cream!" Looking over Naruto saw a father and son standing over at an ice cream stand. "I want this one, the one that breaks in two!" Once again Naruto started to feel uncharacteristically low just by looking at the two. Seeing the father get the popsicle and breaking it in two he handed one to his son and began to eat the other one. "What? I can eat them both." The son complained.

"Nope, Kaa-san is waiting at home with the meal she made. She would get mad if you spoiled your dinner." With a smile the two then started to walk down the street hand in hand, leaving Naruto to walk back to his spot all alone with depressed eyes.

"Hey…" Naruto started as the three of them all were sitting down eating their meal. "Can you supervise my training just a bit today?"

Arashi could see the sadness in his eyes and understood what he was feeling. Naruto was feeling all alone like he had as a child. "I don't have time for that. I have to head for the city right after this. If you don't think and grasp the trick on your own…you'll never master this. I told you that three weeks ago…don't seek attention like a kid. You're a ninja, act like it." Naruto only lowered his head and for a second he looked very down on himself before he went back to his act of happiness.

"I don't need you to remind me that, I already know! I just asked on a whim, go ahead and leave Ero-Sennin." After that the two boys went back to their training and eventually went back to the room.

Much later that night when Jiraiya returned he looked down to see both of Naruto's arms wrapped in wet cloths and Arashi's right arm as well. Both of them were fast asleep but with very pained looks on their faces as they slept, occasionally they would twitch and groan in pain. 'Its been almost a month…and their chakra systems are probably suffering from overuse…it seems their lacking something…' He then smirked as he slid into bed and fell asleep himself.

"KUSO! It won't pop no matter how much I try! I'm only leaking out chakra like this." Looking at his shaking hands Naruto tried to figure it out. 'Also, the more chakra I transfer into the ball, the more pain I feel. The thing won't pop unless I make the chakra explode in a blink of an eye!' The something seemed to align in Naruto's mind, reaching out he grabbed onto the ball and held it between his two hands. 'I get it now! I can tell how much chakra is flowing because of the pain.' He then began pushing more and more chakra into the ball as the pain in his hands escalated. 'Then…I'll bear with the pain until it's unbearable and make it…' He pushed more and more in, as the pain rose even more. 'Not yet…not yet…!' He was having trouble even keeping his eyes open from the pain that was coursing through his hands. 'Keep storing the chakra…NOW!' He then leapt into action and did his hitting of the ball. Now concentrating the rotation with the power he had accumulated he forced them together as more pain ripped into his hands. "This hurts like hell!" He yelled as all of the chakra was pushed into the rotation of the ball. But instead of popping, it ripped a hole in it and the air and the pent up chakra blew out. Looking at the hole he couldn't help but smile.

"Oh? Looks like you've made some progress." Jiraiya said behind Naruto, surprising the boy that his Sensei was actually seeing how he was doing.

"I only made a hole in it, and it didn't pop like a balloon."

"Don't act so tough." The Sannin said as he broke a two pieced popsicle and handed one to Naruto. "Here." Naruto just starred at him like one of his dreams had come true. "You've done very well coming this far on your own."

Reaching out and taking the popsicle with a huge smile he took a bite while still smiling. "This is good."

"Yeah." The white haired man said with a satisfied smile. "I know, let's try something. Show me your right hand." Taking out a brush he drew a small spiraled dot on his hand with a grin.

"What's this?"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"ARRRRGGHH! MY ARMS!" Orochimaru screamed in excruciating pain while lying in a large bed with tons of bandages on both of his lifeless arms.

"Orochimaru-sama, are you okay? You need to take your medicine!" With an evil glare at the man at his side and a shift of his weight, blood sprayed everywhere as the man was cloven in two. Orochimaru groaned and panted in horrible pain until the door opened to let a bit of light inside the dark room.

"Ah? I just came back, and I need to clean the room already?" Kabuto said unnerved that a man lay on the ground in pieces. "Please take your medicine Orochimaru-sama."

"I don't need your useless medicine." The Snake Sannin spat out at his right hand man.

"I made it especially for you, it should ease your pain…even just a little."

"This burning pain in my arms…I had no idea the suffering would be this great!" He managed to say through pained gasps for breath.

"It is the last curse of Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage after all…"

With another dangerous glare Orochimaru managed to shut Kabuto up for a second. "Shut up with your explanations!" Then with a more serious glance he continued. "More importantly, have you found the one I seek?"

"Hai. It seems that the trail leading to that person lead to a place called Tanzaku City."

"Tanzaku City…" He said when his serious glare shifted into a creepy smile. "I see."

"But that person is one of the Legendary Sannin. It isn't going to be easy…"

Then with an even creepier grin Orochimaru chuckled. "Kukukuku…The best medicines are always bitter."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Holy crap, I was thinking about extending this one to include the other part of the training but then I think it would be a little to uber long. Well I've been really motivated to write recently so that's why it's up so quickly. I had no idea how hard it would be to add in Arashi to this training, and I think I put enough of him doing the training…oh well I hope everyone likes it and think of him basically doing the same things Naruto is doing.**

**Also if your wondering, the chamber where the Akatsuki Leader resides is supposed to come off like Aizen's throne room from Bleach, just thought I'd put that out there.**

**Well I want to thank everyone who voted so far and reviewed. Now anyone else who reads this story who hasn't voted needs to vote on if Hinata should go with them during the time skip or not.**

**And as always…REVIEW! They really make me write faster, so the more of them I get the more I want to write and get the update out faster! SO REVIEW!**


	23. Pop the Ball and Find the Slug!

**Review Reply:**

**NarutoFanBoy4Life: **Wow, from what you had on your profile it sounds like you were comparing my story to the Golden Fox. I've never read it but I've heard all kinds of things about it on Naruto Manga Returns, and I'm honored. As for Hinata, thanks for the vote and continue to review in the future, as anyone who PMs me can tell you, I respond to anything I'm sent. So if you have questions…feel free to contact me.

**Chosha Kurenai: **Ah, you're the only one that caught that about Yondy and Jiraiya's little talk. You seem to catch on to the little things and hints at the future that I put in. Congrats and thanks for your continuous support!

**Uchiha Kaz: **Thanks for the review, also there is no need to vote again if you already have, but I always welcome reviews!

**Animeskid: **Yes, poor poor Naruto. I tried to write this one fast but with Memorial Day Weekend I was out with my family and I just started my job so it took longer than expected.

**NarutoDaFox: **I fully intend for their relationship to grow and all, it would make for a crappy story if it didn't.

**RasenganRendan01:** Whoa now, lets not go comparing me to Kishi-dono! But thanks for your enthusiasm and as I told you earlier you get to name a character in the next arc! So think up a name and get to me on that and also keep reviewing!

**Cloudfightback: **An interesting idea but I don't think it'll work with what I have going. But as for the multiple people using the same jutsu thing…Chidori and Rasengan aren't really Sasuke and Naruto's jutsu. They both were taught to them by either the creator of the jutsu or someone else who knew it, so there are multiple people who use it.

**Wingsofeagle: **Yeah thanks for the review!

**Tashio:** I sent you the total description of Arashi as he I right now, but that will change a bit in upcoming chapters. I'm really glad that another Naru/Hina fan like myself really likes the Arashi/Hinata pairing I made! NaruHina forever!!

**Royal Snaza: **Thanks for the review man! You get to name a character like we've talked about. Just remember to save the guy's name and tell me again when I get closer to the next arc.

**Grapefruit.ninja:** Thanks, I felt like Rasengan is a jutsu that the user has to do himself, to discover new things and push the limits of their body. I didn't want Yondy to help b/c he created it and must know that this truth applies to it. Also, what happened to your story!! I was looking forward to it!!!!

**Kazuma Watanabe:** HAHA! Yeah we all hate Sasuke! Yeah I had played with that idea myself a while back and have some interesting ideas for the next arc with it! (Laughs Maniacally!)

**CrimsonCat101: **Even though there was no point to your review…Yay for reviews!!!!

**Static44:** Well Shippuden is a long way away! But I've had my mind bombarded with ideas for it the last couple weeks. But yes, I bet some people are wondering what the deal with Akatsuki's only female member is. You've consistently been the 1st one to review the last couple chapters and for that I thank you!

**NaruHarem4eva:** Thanks for the complement, but as for bugging me…no it won't make me go faster. But giving good reviews that I'll like will inspire me to write more!

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto; only Arashi!

To commemorate this story breaking the 200,000 word mark I will be giving some information on how its going!

Chapters: 23

Words: 202,452

Reviews: 178

Hits: 17,585

Most hits on a chapter: Chapter 1 with 5,441 hits

Most reviews: Chapter 22 with 15 reviews.

Least reviews: Chapter 8 with 3 reviews, understandable b/c it was a bad chapter!

C2s: 2

Favs: 38

Alerts: 45

Well there you have it; I would also like to personally thank Rasenganrendan01 and Royal Snaza for reviewing on every chapter I have put out. For their efforts their reward is that they both get to name a character in my original arc that will happen after the Tsunade arc and before Retrieve Sasuke arc!! Anyone else that decides to follow in their footsteps will receive the same prize once they have completed the reviews, and in these reviews I would like for it to be about what you liked in the chapter and all.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It had been about a month since Jiraiya had taken Naruto and Arashi with him in search of Tsunade, and there was still no change in either Sasuke or Kakashi's conditions. That of course left Hinata with little options for training in the time the rest of her team was gone. But about three weeks prior her father had insisted on her furthering her abilities in her family's specialties, more specifically by training with Neji for several hours each day. She had no doubt improved farther and faster than she had ever expected to in her life, perfecting some of the Hyuuga's most devastating attacks and even mastering the Kaiten. Not to say that it came easy, she was consistently sore from her efforts with her cousin and barely had time to go out and have any fun with her friends. But despite the difficulty of getting out she had managed to become much better friends with Ino, Sasame, Ten-Ten, and Sakura. Currently however she had just gotten out of a wonderful bath to relieve her usual pains from the day. Sitting down on her bed her mind joyously thought of her beloved Himura.

She was then pulled out of her thoughts by an odd scratching sound at her door. Getting up she went and opened the door, but seeing no one there she closed it and turned around. To her surprise, sitting on the bed now was a small silver wolf with a black bandana wrapped around its neck. Looking closely at it she inched closer to it, but was suddenly scared silly as it spoke. "You Hinata Hyuuga?"

Only being able to nod, she did and looked at the pup oddly. "Good, I've been looking for you for a while. I got something here for you from Boss…I mean Arashi-sama."

Hearing his name and that he had something for her she light up and rushed over to the wolf. "Well what is it?" She said excitedly until she noticed the folded up piece of paper tucked neatly under the wolf's bandana.

"Well since you got it I guess I'll go. The name's Rok by the way, I'm sure you'll see me again! I mean who wouldn't, I'm just soooo cute!" He said before he puffed away leaving Hinata alone with the note.

Opening it slowly she began to read it. '_Dear Hinata. I just want to say that we're fine and training really hard out here. Naruto and I heard about Kakashi-sensei and we're trying to get Ero-Sennin to get information of Tsunade as fast as he can. I know this must be hard on you, with us gone, and Kakashi-sensei out of it. But I hope you're okay and are training hard as well, I know you are and you'll probably beat the snot out of us when we get back!'_ Hinata couldn't help but giggle as she read that part. _'I really don't know when we'll get back, but I miss you. I really miss you, just want you to know we haven't forgotten about you or anything (How could anyone?) and that I love you. Love, Arashi!'_ Then at the bottom there was a little drawing of a chibi Arashi leaning over to give a chibi Hinata a kiss with a heart over their heads. That night Hinata slept better than she had the entire time Arashi had been gone.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto looked down at his hand oddly, wondering what purpose a small spiraled dot could possibly do to help him pop the ball. Hearing the slipping sound of strings he looked up to see that Jiraiya had removed the hand guards he always wore and showed his palm to the boy. Looking closely Naruto saw that the Sannin has the exact same mark on his palm. "It's the same mark, but how is that going to help me?"

With his popsicle in his mouth Jiraiya reached into his shirt as he spoke. "You're the kind of guy who got scolded for not being able to concentrate at the Academy, right?"

"That hardly matters now you crazy old perv."

Pulling out a blank piece of paper he showed it to Naruto. "Look at this piece of paper." He then watched as the young boy looked intently at it for a second. "Okay, now look at it again." Showing him again, the paper now had the same mark on it and Naruto's eyes were instantly drawn to it.

"What about it?"

With a sigh Jiraiya decided to continue with the 'hint'. "This really isn't something that I should go to great lengths to explain…but when you looked at the plain white piece of paper, you just glanced at the entire sheet, right?" Naruto nodded and his Sensei continued. "Then where did you look when I showed you this? You most likely stared at the dot there." Naruto just looked at him like he had read his mind. "When a person looks at a plain white sheet they don't know where to look and their eyes wander. But if you put a dot in the middle, a person concentrated on that area and focuses. When a person concentrates on something, his mind stabilizes and he is able to extract unimaginable power!" During the whole explanation Naruto had been intently listening while finishing off the rest of his treat. "When you opened a hole in that ball…you probably were desperately accumulating as much chakra as possible in your right hand."

"Yeah! It hurt like hell but because of the pain in my hands I could calculate just how much chakra I was pushing into it."

"When you concentrate, you extract more power. But it's hard to concentrate without some ort of mark. This is where this thing comes in, so listen carefully. When you try to accumulate chakra in your palm…try to concentrate your mind on that mark."

"Concentrate…" Frowning at his palm he said he thoughts out loud. "Yosh! I'll do it now!" He then proclaimed with a gratified smile.

Elsewhere Arashi was currently on the ground sitting with his back to a tree and panting hard. Looking at his hand he could see it trembling just from laying there. "Byakugan." He said as he activated the Hyuuga ability in him, looking at his hand he could clearly see what was wrong. His chakra network was throbbing and had several areas where it bulged a little bit, these bulges seemed to be pressing up against many nerve cells in his hand and because of that he was feeling the pain. "Damn, this is so much harder than I thought it would be. Three weeks and nothing!" With a groan he stood up and got back to training.

The sound of air escaping through a hole could distinctly be heard over near Naruto. Looking at the now flat ball he sighed in disappointment, all around him there were about a dozen or so flat balls. "This won't do. It needs to go "Pop!"" Reaching over to the large bag filed with balls he retrieved another one and repeated his process.

The Sun was now starting to set and Jiraiya was almost out of time before he had to go have some fun with the girls he had come to know quite well. "Excuse me, can I ask you something?" He said to the same man that Arashi and Naruto had bought the fake ANBU masks from a month earlier. "Have you seen this woman anytime at all?" He asked as he held up a picture of a younger Tsunade.

Elsewhere a creaking noise could be heard as a large purple door opened up to reveal the Snake Sannin and Kabuto Yakushi walking calmly out of an underground hideout. Glaring as his arms are aflame with pain Orochimaru leads the way as they head towards Tanzaku city. Turning to Kabuto he lets out a pained question. "Did you bring it along?" Kabuto didn't respond, instead he reached into his shirt and pulled out a necklace that was around his neck with a small ring on it with the kanji for Void on it. "Good, it would be detrimental if they were to reclaim it." He hissed before he was wracked with more pain from his arms.

It had now been a couple days since Jiraiya put the mark on Naruto's hand and he still wasn't popping the ball, now there were many more flat balls around him. 'Concentrate…' But once again it merely ripped open. "Kuso!" Naruto yelled before he shuddered in pain as he clenched his hands to stop their shaking.

The sun was now down and the stars were out, Naruto had already gone back to the room to get some sleep. But Arashi was still out there with determination on his face. 'I'm going to make this damn thing pop if it's the last thing I do!' He thought as he began to spin his chakra within the rubber ball. Faster and faster he made it go, pumping more chakra into it. With a twitch of pain he felt his hand flare up as more chakra went through it, that's when the same idea Naruto got several days earlier ran into his mind. Pushing more and more into it his hand began to shake violently as the accumulated chakra rose within the ball. 'I can use more!! Not yet…not…yet!!' Finally, when he could bear the pain no more released the pent up chakra into rotation within the ball. "Pssssssssssss…" Looking down he saw that all of the air from within the ball and the chakra he had gathered blew out of it. Just looking at the hole in it he smiled big as he began to feel very woozy. "The rotation was unstable and not powerful enough, that's why it ripped it and not popped it. I need to concentrate mor…" Suddenly he fell to his knees and then to the ground asleep. The strain of the day and the immense amount of chakra he had used that day finally caught up with him, and for the first time in his life Arashi passed out from chakra exhaustion.

Seeing that Arashi was not back when he returned from his escapades Jiraiya groaned and went to look for the boy. "I swear these kids can be so stubborn." He said as he trudged up to their training area still feeling the sake he had earlier that night. Looking down at the now asleep Himura the old Sannin couldn't help but smile as he saw the ripped open ball. Picking the boy up he carried him back to the hotel and laid him to rest in his futon still with a smile on his face. Taking out his brush he painted a dot with three tails coming out of it in a spiral pattern. "Can't give you both the same of everything." He chuckled as he himself drifted off to sleep after getting into bed.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Kaiten!" A voice rang out as the spiraling wall of chakra engulfed the Hyuuga producing it, blocking everything out. With a push of even more chakra the wall extended even further to make a gigantic Kaiten that knocked several trees down when it made contact with it. Slowing down the spin, the Kaiten dispersed leaving a solitary person staring towards the sky. Overhead several birds flew over head, looking at them a small smile made its way across the Hyuuga's face.

"Neji! That truly was amazing! The power of your youth…!" Lee shouted out before receiving a large bump on his head from TenTen's fist.

"What do I have to do to get you to stop spouting off about that?! Gai-sensei isn't even here! Who are you trying to impress!?!" Lee just looked at the weapons master with puppy dog eyes while rubbing his head. "Fine, I'm sorry I hit you. But you know you went over your Youth Limit for the day. You get to say it five times and that was your seventh!"

"Gomen TenTen-chan! I will not let you down again!" He said with a salute and sparkling goofy smile reserved for only Lee. Walking over to them Neji actually let out a small chuckle at his team mate's actions. This of course didn't go unnoticed by Konoha's Second Green Beast. "Look at that, he can laugh!" Lee said with a smirk until he had to flee for his life from the hail of kunai speeding at him.

Once Lee was gone and out of sight TenTen suddenly realized that she was once again all alone in the forest with Neji. She then had a desperate feeling to get out of there before she could say something that Neji would pick up on, after all he is a very observant person and she can be a little forthcoming with her feelings. But before she could come up with viable excuse, her thoughts were interrupted by the calm smooth voice she had come to adore. "With Lee gone and us done with training…would you mind getting some dinner with me?" Looking at him with wide eyes she managed to see a small blush and nervous look breaking through his calm exterior.

Upon seeing this happen something inside her seemed to click and she realized why he had started to be like this more often since the first time during training for his fight against Naruto. Deciding to be bold and to test her theory she smiled and spoke up. "I would love to Neji-kun. Anou…would this be…like a…date…?" She had found the last part much more difficult to say that she had first expected it.

Then she observed something she had never seen in Neji, he laughed nervously and sported a blush equal to one of Hinata's smaller ones. "On no! I mean…not unless….you'd want it to be…one." He said desperately trying to get himself back under control. With a sigh he knew he was defeated, collecting himself he spoke again in his normal soothing and calm voice. "TenTen, it would honor me if you would accompany me on a date tonight."

With a slight giggle at him getting so serious to hide his nervousness he grabbed onto his arm and gave him a small peck on the cheek, leaving a bright red blush when she had made contact that soon washed over his face. Knowing without a doubt that he was indeed Hinata's cousin she giggled again. "Like I said before…I'd love to."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Waking up Arashi assumed that he had been found and brought back to the room because he sure as hell didn't go back before he had fallen asleep right after ripping the ball. Then he remembered what he did and shook Jiraiya awake to tell him. When the Sannin was awakened quite rudely as a matter of fact, he sighed and showed Arashi his palm after getting the story of what he had done. He also went and described the reason for the mark to Arashi and what it is supposed to do for him. But unnoticed to them both, Naruto had one eye open the whole time and now had an extremely large smile because he was getting the jutsu faster than his friend.

After another ripped ball Naruto slumped down at the base of a tree. "It's not working…" Looking down at his shaking hands he sighed in frustration. "Kuso, what does it mean to concentrate?" After a few more attempts he headed back, disappointed. Jiraiya also had a fruitless night in his search for information concerning Tsunade. Defeated he dragged himself to the hotel early, deciding not to visit the bar that night.

Elsewhere, deep in a forest a gut wrenching scream of agony could be heard. Falling to his knees Orochimaru let out another scream of pain towards the sky. "CURSE YOU, SARUTOBI!!!" With a swipe of his leg, his foot sliced through a large tree that then came crashing down next to the snake Sannin. Breathing heavily Orochimaru struggled to his feet and with a murderous glare he commanded Kabuto continue.

"Here." Jiraiya said as he sat down a fresh bag of balls for Naruto with another one in his other hand for Arashi. "I'm going no, after I drop these off with Arashi I have to go gather information again."

"But you just got here." The hyperactive blonde retorted in a disappointed tone.

"I don't have time to waste; we need to find information on Tsunade soon." He said as he turned and headed off towards where Arashi was training.

"Hey, hey! Isn't there going to be any kind of master-apprentice bonding over a game of catch?!" Naruto said while aggravated at Jiraiya's lack of supervision. Picking up one of the balls in the bag he chucked it at the big white haired target in front of him. "Kuso!"

With a glint in his eye Jiraiya turned around in a flash and caught the ball in his mouth. "Hahahaha! Strike!!" Spiting the ball out he turned to leave once again with a now dumbfounded Naruto staring at him. "There, catch is over. See you later." He said while laughing to himself as he headed towards Arashi.

"Hm, I'll just forget about that dirty old man and work hard on my own!" Naruto said more to himself as he went over and grabbed a ball to start working on.

'Naruto, you _have_ to do this training alone. I'm sorry, but I can't do this for you. You really have the potential to become like Yondaime, figure it out for yourself.' He thought as he approached Arashi with a serious look.

"Never seen her." A man said to Jiraiya after looking at his picture of Tsunade.

"Really…" He sighed. "I'm sorry to have bothered you." He responded with a sigh.

"I've seen her…" A voice behind Jiraiya said with confidence. Turing around he saw a man with a goatee and a man with glasses sipping some drinks with smirks on their faces. "and I now where she is right now."

Seeing his golden opportunity Jiraiya put on his best ass-kissing smile. "I'll buy you a drink…"

"No need. We made a killing off of her." He thought with a smile at how much he had made off with because of her.

With a scowl Jiraiya snorted. "She lost again?"

"She lost badly, so she said she was going to go somewhere else. She said she was going to Tanzaku City." He said with a smile that made Jiraiya light up. Thanking the man he dashed out of the bar to retrieve Naruto and Arashi.

"Tanzaku City…One of the legendary Sannin, Tsunade-sama is staying there." Kabuto remarked as he and Orochimaru looked down at the city below them.

"I can finally do something about these arms…" Orochimaru stated as he smoothed out his deep purple kimono and straightened the light pink vest he wore over it.

After raising an eyebrow to his master's previous action, Kabuto continued. "Although she may be good medicine, she's going to be more than bitter. Especially after what you did to her."

With a sickening laugh and a demented glint in his yellow eyes Orochimaru spoke up. "She doesn't now the truth about that night, so don't worry."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Currently a blonde woman had her deep chocolate eyes fixed on a pachinko machine. The busty woman with twin ponytails, a white shirt that showed off some cleavage, black pants that showed off her curves and stopped mid-calf, and an open green jacket with the kanji for 'gamble' on the back was fully concentrated on the machine in front of her as she pulled the crank.

Behind her a younger woman in a black robe with a white collar and a lavender sash was praying for a seven on the machine as he held tightly onto a pig that happened to be wearing a pearl necklace and a red vest. Watching closely as the last wheel rotated she was desperately praying for a seven. When it actually landed on seven she jumped up and down, causing her short black hair to sway with the movement. "Jackpot!" She yelled as coins fell down into the tray.

"Congratulations, patron!" A loudspeaker said above them. "Number 44's on fire right now! Please win more!"

"Unusual things do happen, Tsunade-sama!" The black haired woman remarked as the Sannin seated in front of her just stared at the machine in front of her in wonder.

'I got three sevens?' With a glare at the machine she put another coin in. Several minute later she had a huge stack of six boxes filled with coins and had just hit another jackpot. People were now crowding around her to watch her break the house record.

"Hurray! You're on fire Tsunade-sama!!" The woman in black yelled in joy with a look that made her look a little bit like a chipmunk.

Still glaring at the machine, Tsunade was deep in thought. 'I'm winning so much…I never win this much. I have a bad feeling about this.'

She was right to have a bad feeling because just outside the city Kabuto and Orochimaru were making their way towards their target. "I also know a little about Tsunade-sama." Kabuto said, breaking the silence that had come over the two other than the pained breathing of his master. "I was part of the medical squad, after all. I know that she was the first one who came up with the proposal to have a medical specialist in a four-man squad. That was a landmark in history. What would happen to a combat squad if there was no one to administer emergency treatment on the battlefield? The result is as obvious as a fire at night."

With a scoff, Orochimaru put his knowledge on the subject into the open. "The countless wars that Konoha fought brought about many advances. They were made possible by the many that died in order for others to realize the importance of Tsunade's ideas. When a person loses something, he is only then able to realize its importance. And what created one of the legendary Sannin who has been praised as a medical specialist, were those sacrifices."

On his knees and panting, Naruto was now surrounded by flat rubber balls. Sitting up he kept telling himself to concentrate in his mind as he looked at his marked right hand. 'Concentrate…' Closing his eyes he began to meditate in order to clear his mind and concentrate all of his power to the mark on his hand. 'Concentrate on one point. Inside his mind he had accomplished clearing it of all things, now it was a black void. Concentrating he formed a white area in his mind and then bean to focus on the dot, but instead of the dot, the vision of Jiraiya's face when he caught the ball with his mouth showed up. "Strike!" The Sannin's word echoed in Naruto's mind.

This of course caused Naruto to burst out laughing, rolling around flailing his legs around as he laughed. "That idiotic, perverted face keeps coming up! I can't concentrate!!" He managed to say to himself between laughs.

"Tsunade-sama, please wait." The woman in black said as she followed the Sannin out of the Pachinko parlor with a bag of food and a now very full wallet. "What happened? It's like a miracle for you to win this much, Tsunade-sama…but you don't look happy at all."

"This city…I have a bad feeling about this place…" She said while still thinking on what it could possibly be. "We're going to leave…Shizune."

"What? But this place is a tourist resort. Let's at least go look at the castle and enjoy the place…"

"Then look at it when we pass it by and leave, now hurry up." Tsunade said as she moved on ahead.

"Wait Tsunade-sama!" Shizune said as she hurried along to catch up to her master.

The group of Kabuto and Orochimaru had just reached to stairs at the opening to the city when Orochimaru slumped against one of the columns in pain. "Orochimaru-sama!" Kabuto said in concern.

"Let's finish this business quickly…even if we have to get a little rough. We don't know when Sasori could track us down."

Arashi now currently lying on the ground out of breath as he gazed up at the clouds overhead, about a dozen ripped balls now laid around him. "I have to do this…" Trying to push himself up he was greeted by excruciating pain in his right hand when he pushed down on it. "I can't even mold chakra anymore with this pain…!" He said as he griped his throbbing hand in pain.

'Is he at his limit now? I'm surprised he's gone this long without a break, especially using one hand.' Jiraiya thought to himself as he watched the young Himura from behind a tree. With one more look he saw that he had gotten back up despite the pain in his hand. Watching closely he saw him begin to try and pop the ball, but when the ball began to bulge and shake violently Jiraiya saw what could be the problem. Despite the fact that Arashi was succeeding at putting enough chakra inside the ball to make it beginning to glow from the amount, the movements of the chakra from what he could tell were unbalanced; the rotation wasn't uniform like it was supposed to be. One section of the ball had a much bigger bulge than anywhere else and it was there that Jiraiya saw the ball rip open and shoot out the air and chakra from within it. 'He has more than enough power behind that to pop it, he's just unbalanced so its ripping through it instead of the pressure being uniform. I'll have to talk to him about that, now to check on Naruto…'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'Genjutsu: Tree Binding Death!' Suddenly Kiba was stopped in his tracks as a tree began to grow rapidly beneath him and constrict around him and Akamaru. The tree then seemed to swallow Akamaru, leaving only Kiba's now quickly disappearing torso exposed from the tree.

Kiba then felt his chakra quickly leaving him, after about thirty seconds he passed out and fell hard to the ground. Walking over Kurenai frowned at how easily Kiba had been taken down, even if this was training. "Sakura, you did an excellent job with that genjutsu, separating Kiba from Akamaru and immobilizing him so that Shino could finish the job. But Shino, this is only training don't you think you went a little overboard with the Kikai?"

"If I do not fully prepare myself for an enemy, then I will be at a disadvantage when I am in battle. My enemy will not let up so why should I?" Shino stated rather than asked. Kurenai sighed at his attitude but decide it was for the best; after all he would never be caught unprepared if he took everything so seriously.

With a groan Kiba's eyes fluttered open to be met with the sight of Akamaru licking his face. "W-what happened?" He said after struggling to his feet.

"You got demolished. You easily fell for Sakura's genjutsu and then while trapped in it Shino used his Kikai to suck the chakra from you." She said after brushing the dirt off of his shoulders. Then looking over to Sakura she got a puzzled look on her face. "By the way Sakura, how was it that you caught him so easily?"

"Well for starters, he's an idiot." Kiba almost shouted back at her for it but decided not to after what happened the last time as he rubbed the back of his head where there was still a bruise. "Secondly, instead of saying the name of the jutsu out loud like we all do most of the time. I thought it in my mind so that he wouldn't know that he was getting hit with a genjutsu."

Kurenai was impressed, she had only figured out that little trick about five years earlier. But there was a big difference between thinking of it and executing the jutsu without the verbal concentration. "Good job Sakura, I think that we've had enough for right now. How about some lunch, my treat everyone?"

Shino nodded in agreement, Kiba jumped for joy at the prospect of a free meal, but Sakura looked at her feet. "Gomen, Kurenai-sensei. But I'm going to go visit Sasuke-kun." With a wave and a sad smile she went off towards the hospital.

"Damn, when's she going to figure out how much of a jerk he is? Plus she's been there like everyday!" Kiba said while placing the little white dog atop his head.

"Actually she has been there everyday since he came back in that coma." Shino said stoically.

"What are you going to do if she ever finds that tracker bug you have on her?" The Inuzuka said mischievously.

"She never will find it, but if she did…I would just plant another one."

Tuning out her other students as they walked back towards the village and a place to eat Kurenai deep in thought. 'Poor Sakura…'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'Lets see what he can do…' Jiraiya thought once he got within sight of Naruto.

Lying on his back much like Arashi had, Naruto was panting like Akamaru in a bad heat. With a shake of his head his headband came loose and fell to the side. "A little more…I'm going to rest a little more." Looking up he saw the trees shift as a cooling breeze drifted by; closing his eyes Naruto let the wind blow over him. By chance a leaf drifted down and stuck to his sweaty forehead, reaching up to feel what was there a distinct memory from the academy showed up in his head when he felt it was a leaf.

_Arashi smiled and stuck out his tongue at his best friend as he and Hinata left for the day while Naruto had been called into Iruka's office for a talk. With him were the rest of his friends, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Kiba with a young Akamaru on his head. "You guys…you guys lack concentration! You can't become excellent Shinobi at this rate!" Iruka yelled at the boys._

"_I can't stay put at a desk. Right, Akamaru?" Kiba said, gaining a yip from his dog. _

_Shikamaru simply yawned. "I'm hungry…" Chouji said while rubbing his stomach._

"_Sensei, please keep this lecture short." Naruto retorted, not really paying attention to his teacher._

"_You guys…!" Iruka said, trying to contain his rage at the four in front of him. "I'm going to have an after school class to improve your concentration!" He said, gaining groans of displeasure from his students. Silencing them with a flick of his wrist, four leaves stuck themselves to each of their foreheads._

"_What's this?" Naruto said, not getting why his teacher was looking so smug as he rolled a leaf around between his fingers._

"_What you're about to do is what generations of Konoha Shinobi practiced to hone their concentration. This exercise is to concentrate all your energy on the leaf on your head and mold chakra to it."_

"_You mean like this?" Naruto asked as he spun the leaf while it was hovering on his forehead._

"_Naruto pay attention, its an old tradition to concentrate on just the leaf so that your mind doesn't get distracted. Using it for chakra control like you're doing s only a small portion of its purpose. It is behind this concentration and focus that makes this village powerful and only those who've worked hard on their concentration can become excellent Shinobi. It is this idea that the Konoha emblem on our head protectors come from."_

"_That sounds fake; Oji-san didn't say anything about that when he showed it to me and Arashi." Naruto said._

"_Are you lying to try and motivate us?" Shikamaru said, adding his two cents. Chouji and Kiba nodded in agreement with Shikamaru on the matter and looked at their sensei._

"_Its not fake! It's true!" He said loudly with a fist raised._

"_Are you able to become an excellent ninja just by working hard on your concentration?" Kiba asked smugly._

"_Yeah, an excellent ninja is one who's strong." Naruto said with his hands in his pockets._

"_That makes sense to me." The young Akimichi said._

"_This is what I think of this…" With a hard breath Naruto shot the leaf off his head and into the air, causing Iruka to go into a crazed frenzy as the four boys escaped out the window with a laugh._

"_Hey, wait up you guys!!" He yelled at the fleeing youngsters before him. "You ungrateful brats!!!"_

"This is the same thing…" Naruto said while looking at the spiral mark on his hand. "I should've listened to Iruka-sensei more. I'm such an idiot." Sitting up with determination in his eyes he licked his thumb and smudged the mark a bit. "Reflecting on my actions won't change anything." Looking down he smiled as he finished changing the spiral into a Konoha emblem. "Okay, I'll do it this time!" Standing up he glared at the ball in his left hand. "Concentrate, concentrate." Closing his eyes he once again cleared his mind of all thought. The ball was now beginning to stretch with the rotation going on inside. Inside his mind he created the Konoha mark, it actually showed up instead of Jiraiya's face. With the mark being to only thing he was focused on the chakra began to swirl and spiral towards the mark. "Now!" He said as his eyes shot open and with a yell his hand went into a flurry of hits that spun the chakra around in a hundred directions. The ball then began to glow bright white from the chakra inside and a wind seemed to come off of it, blowing Naruto's hair back. Continually hitting the ball he kept up his concentration and kept pushing more and more chakra into the ball, causing it to glow brighter and brighter. In a flash of light and chakra, the ball exploded instead of popped, sending Naruto flying backwards from the force of the explosion.

Naruto skidded across the ground for a good 20 feet before Jiraiya caught him, and stopped his movement. Looking down he saw the changes mark on his hand and the new burn marks that were still smoking on his hand. 'What a guy. He accumulated chakra to the point that it burned his hand…this brat sure is full of surprises, I was sure Arashi would get it before him. But Naruto had near perfect balance of his chakra rotation…'

Looking weakly up at his sensei Naruto smiled. "It popped…"

"Baka! That was an explosion not a pop!" the Sannin said with a laugh. "But it looks like you cleared the second step."

"Lets start the third step…"

"That's going to have to wait. We're going to meet up with Tsunade now, I located her. Now we need to go get Arashi, then get our stuff from the hotel and we're out of here." He said as Naruto succumbed to exhaustion from the massive amounts of chakra he had used up that day. Slinging Naruto's now sleeping body over his shoulder, Jiraiya went off to gather up Arashi as well and head for Tanzaku city.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Kuso!" Shikamaru said under his breath as he jumped from tree to tree while holding a training dummy on his back. Hearing the whistling noise of several kunai whizzing his way he sharply turned to his left and sped off through the canopy of the trees. Coming to a stop he hide himself in a high tree as he made sure the dummy on his back was unharmed. Then suddenly the place of his hiding spot was shock by what felt like an earthquake, causing Shikamaru to plummet down to the forest floor and the awaiting attack of his pursuers.

Managing to get a grip on the tree truck just as he was about to slam into the ground, he leapt over to an adjacent tree and attempted to scurry up it. Only to be met with a gigantic fist slamming through the truck just above him and leaving Shikamaru no place to hide. Glaring at his opponent, the Shadow user sped through available plans in his head. Just standing there for a minute the opponents waited to the other to move, looking at Chouji the Nara could tell that this was going to be tough. The Akimichi had traded in his bandages on his hands and forearms for a pair of black leather Shinobi fingerless gloves; he had also changed his shirt from the loose flowing shirt he used to wear for a much tighter one to show off his newly sculpted muscles. It still had the kanji for eat on it but that was mainly for family purposes, he had also changed his large green jacket to a smaller sleeveless one. Staring down his opponent Shikamaru watched closely as his flowing scarf moved gracefully in the wind, with the slightest movement of his feet Shikamaru watched as a growing fist was slammed into where he would have been if he had not jumped in time.

Seeing his friend off balance after destroying what was left of the tree Shikamaru smirked as he brought his hands up to his favorite sign. "Kagemane no jutsu!" He shouted as his shadow streaked along the ground towards its target.

But what happened next Shikamaru somehow hadn't thought of. Just as his shadow was about to reach Chouji, a light grenade went off above him, making the approaching shadow disappear. Partially blinded by the sudden appearance of the light, Shikamaru had to move quickly as his eyes spotted the blurry shape of an enlarged foot coming straight for his chest. He jumped to the side but not fast enough; the blow glanced his side and sent him flying into a tree chest first. 'Damn! If he had hit me full on, I'd be done!' The Nara thought to himself as he pulled himself up to a crouch and attempted to use his shadow arsenal once more. Suddenly his whole body shook as he felt something odd happen to it, it was then he knew he's lost.

Shikamaru's eyes fluttered open and a smirk that didn't look like it could possible ever appear on his face swept across it. "Mind Transfer Complete." Slinging the dummy off his back and putting out a kunai, the taken over Shikamaru slashed across the neck of the dummy and tossed it to the ground. "Also, mission complete! We win Chouji!" Ino called out from within her pineapple headed team mate.

Chouji then came out from around a tree with Ino's boy slung over his shoulder with a smile. Setting her down next to where her soul currently was they were soon greeted with the rustling of leaves as their Sensei jumped down to them. Releasing the jutsu, Ino returned to her body and got up with a smile as she went over and wrapped her arms around the now muscular arm of her boyfriend. "I'll never get used to that. It just feels so weird having someone else's soul in there with you!" Shikamaru said shaking his head after regaining control of his body.

"Shikamaru, you failed in protecting your target from pursuing Shinobi." Asuma said after a frown and a long drag of his ever present cigarette, turning to his other two students his face turned into a smile. "As for you two, you succeeded in tracking down and eliminating a target that was under the protection of an enemy Shinobi." They both smiled brightly at hearing that from their Sensei, and from knowing that diner would be on Shikamaru that night. "But…" Asuma said while looking back at the path of destruction that Chouji had caused in his pursuit of Shikamaru. "…Unlike Shikamaru, who did his mission in a stealthy fashion, you destroyed almost everything in your path. If there were other enemies nearby they would with out a doubt have found you and evened or tipped the numbers game. Chouji, you need to either tone down the power…or work more on your accuracy of your attacks to lessen the collateral damage you cause."

Chouji frowned; knowing that if he had been more accurate or even a bit faster, then he could have caught Shikamaru sooner and not taken down so many trees. Ino saw this and squeezed his arm tight to let him know she thought he had done wonderful. With a sigh the Nara spoke up to give his two cents on the training for the day. "You two really did well, you eventually got me in a position where I couldn't come up with a strategy to defend myself and caught me off guard with that light grenade. Ino did you throw that?"

She shook her head no and smiled. "No, Chouji-kun had on rigged up to his shoulder in case he saw your shadow coming for him."

Asuma looked at Chouji now with a smile because he had for once used a strategy that worked against his super smart team mate. "As for you Ino, you used the opportunity given to you to perfectly get in there and incapacitate the enemy." She smiled and stuck out her tongue at Shikamaru. "So how does a bit of BBQ sound for tonight? We know Shikamaru's paying!"

"Well I haven't had BBQ in a week so I guess that would be fine." Chouji said with a smile at the thought of the glorious food he was about to eat. As much as his dieting and rigorous training had change his figure form the plump one he had in the academy to the toned and muscular one he now had, he still couldn't turn down some free BBQ! They were all smiling as they made their way to the place, all except for Shikamaru. Who could almost feel his wallet crying out in pain at what he was going to have to pay.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Wow! Tanzaku Castle is impressive!" Shizune said in awe at the gigantic castle that lay at the center of the city. "I can see why it was classified as a cultural landmark."

"There, you've seen it. We're leaving now; I don't like the feel of this city."

"Tsunade-sama, please take a closer loot at it. It's free to look at you know." She said as she rushed to catch up with her master. Stopping in an alley, Tsunade looked up at the Castle intently. There was an odd feeling that she hadn't felt in a long time coming from it and she just couldn't put her finger on it. "Tsunade-sama…?"

Suddenly the Castle seemed to have a bomb go off inside of it. A huge explosion came from within it, sending dust and debris everywhere as the entire structure of it collapsed into a large pile of rubble, leaving a plume of dust in place of where the imposing structure once stood. Squinting to try and see through the massive amount of dust in the air the Sannin began to see the outline of something huge lurking amidst the debris. With another explosion from the spot the Castle once occupied and the dust began to clear, giving a better view of the shadow. Looking intently Tsunade saw the form of a gigantic snake with two people standing atop its head, one of which was the source of the uneasiness she had been feeling, the one with the long flowing black hair and horrifically pale complexion. "Orochimaru…" Tsunade said as she glared at her former team mate with hatred in her eyes.

Throwing his head back the wind whipped his hair around with the flow of it as he laughed. "Kukukuku…I've found you!" With his evil laugh the snake holding them aloft dispersed, leaving a plume of white smoke as Orochimaru and Kabuto landed silently on the ground next to Tsunade and Shizune. They both were standing on either side of one of the alleys of the city, just looking at each other.

"It's been quite a long time, Orochimaru…" Tsunade said in an uninterested tone, while trying to keep herself back from leaping at her traitorous team mate and slitting his throat.

"Indeed, I've looked for you everywhere." He retorted while still wearing the smug smirk on his face that had driven Tsunade to hate him all those years ago.

"What do you want with me? Don't tell me you want to reminisce about old times."

"Well, I have a small request for you." The snake Sannin said calmly as he fought to keep up his image under the excruciating pan throbbing in his bandaged arms.

With a glare she took in his appearance and deduced what was going on. 'His heartbeat is quick. Judging from his face, he has a high fever, he's been fatigued for quite some time. Also, his arms….'

"Tsunade-sama." The spectacled boy next to Orochimaru said, drawing her attention away from where her thoughts were going. "You should have already guessed by now…"

"Ask someone else." She said flatly, not wanting to get involved in whatever evil the Snake was plotting. "I quit medicine a long time ago."

"We can't do that. You should be able to tell how serious the wound is. No one else but you can cure these arms." Kabuto said while feeling slightly out of place amidst such powerful people like the two Sannin before him. "The legendary Sannin who won her fame as the medical specialist…Tsunade-hime, only you can cure this."

Tsunade knew this was a delicate situation, but after hearing the four eyed freak call her that she had to hold herself back with every fiber of her being. "You do not have the right to call me as such; only two people ever had and ever will." Lessening her glare she shifted her gaze to the smirking phanny bandit. "The wound affecting your arms isn't an ordinary one, is it?" Seeing his hands visibly shaking form the strain of dealing with the pain they were causing him she thought on what it could be. 'Is it some sort of special curse jutsu?' "What did you do?"

Staring coldly at the busty woman in front of him Orochimaru spoke dryly to her as if what he was saying had no impact at all. "Nothing much…I got wounded when I killed the Sandaime Hokage." Both women gasped as they heard this new information.

"You…! Did you really?"

A smirk finally broke the Snake Sannin's face as he chuckled his evil laugh. "You don't need to look that scary. All things with form eventually perish. That goes for people too, I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about…" Shizune looked over to now see Tsunade looking straight at the ground. "…since you let two of your loved ones die." Picking her head up she glared daggers at the ale man before her.

'So he's going to use them as a way to control her…if she only knew the truth. Orochimaru-sama…you truly have conjured up a terrifying plan.'

"Kukuku…Yes…their deaths were gruesome."

"Shut your mouth SCUM!!" Shizune yelled as she moved fast to reveal a prepared five needle shooter on her right arm. Pulling back the wires, she shot them out lightning fast, aiming directly at Orochimaru.

But in a flash of metal and four clangs, the needles were all deflected by Kabuto with his odd hooked kunai. But the last of the five Kabuto barely managed to catch it before it pierced into his face, looking down at it he could see a liquid dripping off the edge. "Poison…hidden needles, I see." He said to himself. Pivoting on her foot, Shizune dashed towards Kabuto with rage in her eyes as she reached back for something hidden to his eyes. Darting back and forth on her path Kabuto was really focusing to keep her movements seen to him. 'She's fast!'

"Get out of my way!!" She yelled to him as she whipped something out of her robe.

"I won't do that woman!!" Kabuto said in response as he shot forward to cut her off with his own hooked kunai. Looking down he saw that she had drawn a medical scalpel and it was heading straight for his jugular vein.

"Calm down, Shizune." Tsunade said calmly, causing her to stop suddenly. Looking down Kabuto was beginning to shake at the tiny margin his life had been spared, his hand that was supposed to drive his kunai into her neck had been caught and shoved aside as her scalpel now rested millimeters away from its target.

'This assistant is powerful…' He thought as he regained his composure, while Shizune was breathing hard and glaring to him with a burning intensity. Retracting her blade and letting go of his hand, se leapt back to a defensive position in front of Tsunade.

"Orochimaru…You've been like that since the old days." Then she smiled brightly at him with her eyes closed. "You know what my personality is like, right? Stop joking around." Looking at the game she was playing, a shiver snuck its way up Orochimaru's spine as he remembered exactly what her personality was like. Suddenly her eyes opened and in a fast movement she slammed her fist against the wall behind her. Next the rocks gave of a cracking sound and then simply broke apart and fell to the ground, leaving about a 20 foot wide hole smashed into it. Looking up, her eyes told the two before her that their bodies would be in the same state as the wall if they tried anything or fooled around, it was a glare that promised pain and a lot of pain.

'Such monstrous strength…and she's scary.' Kabuto thought as he witnessed the destruction before him. 'I bet she's single.' Now in a defensive stance before his master Kabuto thought it wise to try and disperse the tension in the air. "We didn't come here to fight. We came to negotiate."

"Negotiate?" Tsunade asked, still in a bad mood and no wanting anything to do with the Snake before her. Getting a nod from Kabuto she glared once again. "Don't make me laugh!" Orochimaru simply stared blankly at her. "I told you this before, get out of my sight!"

"That's not something we can afford." Kabuto retorted while still trying to play negotiator.

"Get lost." Tsunade said coldly.

"Only you can cure Orochimaru-sama's arms. We're not asking that you do it for free. We'll make a trade."

With an intense glare at the two Tsunade gave them their ultimatum. "I'm going to count down to five; I suggest you get lost before I'm done. Otherwise…I'll get rid of you."

Hearing that another shiver went up Orochimaru's back. "Please calm down." The spectacled Nin said calmly. "This isn't a bad deal for you."

"Five…Four…" Kabuto sighed, knowing there was nothing he could say to change her mind. "Three…Two…" Shizune moved herself to be ready to fire off anther volley of poisoned needles. "…One!" Hearing that Shizune leapt into action, only to be stopped by the Snake Sannin's cold words.

"I'll revive your beloved little brother and man…" Tsunade gasped and went wide eyed at hearing that from him. "With the Kinjutsu that I have developed." Frozen in place, Tsunade's mind sped back to the memories she had shared with those two. "You haven't gotten rid of us yet, which means…you're thinking it over?" All the Slug Tamer could do was stare blankly at her former team mate from the offer he had made for her. "You don't want to see those two again Tsunade?"

Visibly shaken by the words Orochimaru was saying to her, her mind drifted back to their smiling faces. 'Nawaki…Dan…' Coming out of her trance she once more glared at the pale man. "What will you do if I cure your arms?"

"I've never been one to lie…so I'll tell you honestly." A deranged look then spread across his faces as he smiled evilly. "I'm going to take what I wand and…this time, I'm going to crush Konoha for sure."

Desperately holding herself back Shizune was staring down the two with a very pissed off look on her face. "Destroy Konoha you say?!" Orochimaru only continued to smirk as Tsunade glanced meekly at the ground. Shizune picked up on this knew that she was actually considering the proposal.

With a smirk Kabuto decided to get back in the conversation. "Your answer is?"

Tsunade couldn't even look at the others; she just looked down and eventually found herself amidst her memories of the past. Her and Nawaki joking about something, her and Dan smiling as they walked down the streets of Konoha hand in hand.

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune's call snapped her out of her thoughts and back to the situation at hand. "Don't do it! Don't listen to their lies! Your brother and Uncle wouldn't want you to do this either! Their wishes, most importantly Tsunade-sama, your wishes, have you forgotten your dreams!?" Tsunade made no movement to her remarks. "Still I understand, even if it's like this…" She said with a remembering face but quickly snapped out of it. "Open your eyes!"

"Shut up Shizune!" Tsunade finally snapped back while still staring at the ground.

"You don't have to answer right now. However, I hope you'll give the answer in one week. Also this Kinjutsu needs a supply of life, a sacrifice if you will. Please prepare two bodies for it." Kabuto told them dryly still wearing a smirk.

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune called out as she reached into her robe once more to get a weapon. "This is our chance; you and me together can beat them!" But looking over she saw the look in her master and friend's face and knew that it just wouldn't happen.

Shakily Orochimaru's hand rose under considerable effort to his mouth, where he bit into his index finger and blood started to seep out and fall to the ground. The second the drop of blood hit the ground Tsunade's eyes went wide and her whole body began to shake out of fear. "Though I'm quite weak now…I still know Tsunade's weakness." He said to Shizune.

'He is a Sannin like Tsunade-sama, also that thing too…'

Now Orochimaru began to taunt his former team mate. "It still hasn't been cured? Your fear of blood."

Kabuto looked from Sannin to Sannin, not sure if what his master was saying was true. 'Hematophobia?' But seeing Tsunade quiver in fear as she held tightly onto her necklace, Kabuto deduced that Orochimaru was indeed telling the truth. But it caused him to wonder why someone who was a medic could possibly be afraid of blood.

"We should get going, Kabuto." He then turned to leave, but stopped and stared back at Tsunade with his silted yellow eyes. "Tsunade…I impatiently await for your answer." Suddenly in a blur he and Kabuto were gone, leaving the two women and a scared pig standing in the destroyed alleyway.

"Let's go Shizune, I need a drink." Tsunade said after a couple minutes with a still blank expression on her face.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Yosh! Let' go!!" Jiraiya shouted dramatically yet again as he pointed towards the direction they were to travel. Arashi and Naruto could only look at him in embarrassment as the silence of the situation finally sunk in on Jiraiya and he realized that no one was listening to him seriously.

"Don't act like such a child, shouting "Let's go!" and all." Arashi said under his breath.

"Hmmm? You two seem to be in a bad mood." He said as he turned to face his grumbling students. "I can bet little Arashi's in a foul mood because big 'ol Naruto passed stage two while he's still stuck on it." He said jokingly until he was hit square in the face with an ice ball yet again. "Itai!!" He shouted and was soon rubbing his pained head. "Fine, I guess I won't tell you what you're doing wrong and how to pop the ball." Grumbling, Arashi crossed his arms and turned to face the city and not pay attention to the Sannin. "What about you, what's got you all riled up?" He said turning to Naruto.

"Because, because…We're still in the middle of our training! There are three steps in the training, right? I've only completed two and Arashi is close but hasn't done it yet, and you want us to just get up ad leave in the middle of the training!?"

With a laugh Jiraiya reached into his shirt for something. "You can do the third step as we walk, and as for Arashi…" The Himura's head turned slightly towards his Sensei to head the information. "…he's just lacking balance in his rotation. All the power he needs is there, its just one of the rotations inside of the ball is bigger than the rest so its ripping a hole in the ball instead of popping it. It didn't affect you Naruto, because with your constant hitting of the ball you keep the rotation in check so they all stay a uniform size. That's how Arashi hasn't done it yet; I can see him getting it in a day or so now that he knows what he's doing wrong. Now I'll show you step three, Naruto." Jiraiya said with a smile, taking his hand out he produced a balloon. Blowing into it he filled it to the same size as the water balloon had been and tied it off.

"A balloon…you've got to be joking." Naruto said in disappointed tone.

"Here." Jiraiya said as he tossed the air filed balloon to the boy.

"Huh? This is just a normal balloon." Naruto grumbled as he squeezed the green dotted balloon now in his hands.

Jiraiya then blew up another one and noticed that Arashi was now paying full attention to him instead of giving him the cold shoulder after giving him a cold bruise on his head. "The first step was rotation, the second step was power, and finally…the third step is this!" He said dramatically as he held up the balloon in his right hand for them to see.

Staring intently at the balloon both boys couldn't see what Jiraiya was getting at, that was until Naruto decided he had enough of his Sensei's game. "What do you mean by "This"?"

"Hahaha, it looks like I'm just holding the balloon in my hand, but…"

"But nothing! Nothing's happening!" Arashi called out in frustration at his future step to complete.

"Oh really? Then I'll do the same thing in my left hand." He then lifted his left hand to be even with the right. "Let's see what's happening inside the balloon." Suddenly whips of chakra formed together into a rotating ball of blue chakra that spun faster and faster the longer it was held in his hand.

'Wow! The chakra's rotating randomly, and its getting faster. But its retaining a nice spherical shape. It looks like…' Naruto thought as he witnessed what he was expected to do in full for the first time.

"It looks like a small typhoon, doesn't it?" Jiraiya retorted with a smirk as both boys looked on intently.

"So the same thing is happening in your right hand?" Arashi said in disbelief, closing his eyes he focused some chakra behind them and snapped them open. "Byakugan!" He lifted his head to reveal the white pupil-less eyes and bulged veins of a Hyuuga as he looked over the balloon. With a sigh he released the doujutsu and his eyes returned to their normal deep blue color. "He's telling the truth Naruto…" He said a little dejected at the seemingly impossible task before him.

'He's rotating that much chakra, but the balloon isn't moving at all!' Naruto thought as he gulped audibly. 'There's more power than when I popped the ball, and the rotation is also incredibly fast…' He was now staring intently at the balloon in his hand, trying to think up any way to accomplish the feat the Sannin before him had done.

"Listen up, in this third step you must use 100 percent of the ability you learned in the first two steps…and retain it. In other words, you have to keep your chakra's rotation and power at the maximum and create a thin layer within the balloon. Then create an image that you're compressing chakra inside that layer."

"I get it-ttebayo!" Naruto shouted joyously. "So all I have to do is keep the power of the rotation I learned in the other two steps and not pop the soft balloon, right?"

"Oh, you're sharper than ever Naruto!" Jiraiya said playfully.

Naruto smiled at what he thought was a compliment when he then thought of a question. "Wait, but why do you have to do that?" With a chuckle Jiraiya turned and tossed the balloon to Naruto and made his way over to a tree.

"This is why…watch you two." Concentrating he created a spiraling ball of chakra in his hand, but it wasn't like the ones he had made earlier, this one wasn't as fast and it was also not as condensed. "If you do this after you've only complete the first two steps…" Slamming it into the tree truck a large spiral pattern seemed to be carved into the truck by the spinning chakra. But still both of the spectators looked in awe at what the jutsu could do. "Now, this is what happens after you've mastered the third step…" Focusing again, chakra began to spin rapidly in his palm, it then stayed in the spherical shape as the speed picked up and the two watching could see how much more power there could be behind it. "This is what happens!" With a thrust Jiraiya pushed the blue orb into the tree trunk, but this time instead of leaving a carved spiral mark on the tree. The chakra didn't disperse; it instead remained as it was and ripped through the tree, leaving a large clean hole going through to the other side once Jiraiya stopped the jutsu. "If you can retain this small typhoon in your hand, the power will not disperse. The rotation will become faster, and the effect will become more concentrated." He said as he formed another spiraling orb of chakra in his hand. "And then its destructive powers will become ultimate!" Cancelling the jutsu he chuckled. "That's how it is."

Looking at the balloon in his hand Naruto smiled with determination. 'All right, I can do this too…' Closing his eyes he focused his chakra, not feeling anything different from the time he exploded the ball he continued. Going into his succession of hits on the balloon he began to spin a massive amount of chakra inside the balloon. "Now!" He said as his other hand stopped its hitting and clamped down on the balloon to hold it in a spherical shape. 'I have to retain it now...retain it!' He thought as his body began to shake while the balloon started to bump out like it had before it popped the ball. Then in a loud pop air and chakra was sent flying everywhere.

"You can't hold back on the power. You have to use 100 percent of its power and rotation to maintain it."

'He's got to be kidding…' Naruto thought as he looked down at his once again shaking hands. 'This is impossible unless I'm able to control 100 percent of my power!'

Watching this whole thing had really deterred Arashi to his own progress, for Naruto to have gotten no where, when he was farther along than he was gave Arashi a bad feeling about the third step once he got there. 'I get it…this third step is way more difficult than the others!' Clenching his fists he wanted to go pummel some trees to release his pent up frustration. 'How am I going to do this!?!'

"I told you two, this is an A-rank super-high level ninjutsu that's difficult to master. It took me well over a year to get to where you are Naruto, and its been what? A little more than a month? Oh well, I'm done with the explanation. You both can work on it while we walk."

"Huh? Hey! You don't need to hurry like that. We can spend s little more time and…" Naruto began before he was cut off by the Gama-Sannin.

"Even if we wanted to, we already wasted a lot of time waiting for you to heal. There's no guarantee that Tsunade is going to stay in that city much longer. I mean it's not like she's going to meet someone she knows and have a long talk about old times." He said as the three set off towards Tanzaku City.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Once more Sakura was overseeing her beloved Sasuke's comatose form. But unlike the many other days, her team was with her. Sitting in the chair next to her Kiba was busy scratching Akamaru while he was hid under his jacket, due to the 'No Pets' rule that the hospital enforced. On the other side of Kiba Shino sat calmly like he always did, but looking closer Sakura could see him twitching his toes nervously. Thinking it odd that he be nervous about anything she voiced her thoughts. "Anou, Shino-kun…is there anything wrong with you? You're twitching your toes and I just thought it was odd." In an even odder movement he snapped his head to look straight at her and even behind the thick glasses Sakura could see that he had a nervous too in his eyes.

"Yeah what's up with you? You've been acting weird all day." Kiba chimed in after remembering the bug user's behavior on the way over to accompany Sakura.

But before Shino could respond they all heard a slight buzzing sound coming from Shino, lifting his index finger t his face a lone bug crawled out from his jacket and buzzed once more. Turning to the others he swallowed hard in a movement that the others had never seen him do before. "The reason for my uncharacteristic behavior is approaching this room as we speak. Now all I ask you is that you be on good behavior…Kiba." No sooner had he said this, when the door to the room slid open to reveal a girl their age with long dark black hair pulled into a pony tail at the base of her head and fell over her left shoulder. She had on a jacket similar to Shino's except it didn't have the high collar he had but instead had a small hood on it that she was not wearing. But the grey jacket was still tight enough for her subtle curves to come through the thick fabric to the delight of Kiba; she also wore a black skirt that stopped a few inches above her knees. She had a serious look on her face as she walked into the room and looked at the now standing Shino with her jet black eyes. "Kiba-kun, Sakura-chan, this is Otome Aburame…my fiancé."

Both of the others just stared at the girl slack jawed. 'This is the girl Arashi said Shino had an arranged marriage to!?! B-But…she's HOT!!!'

"It is a pleasure to finally meet you Kiba-san, Sakura-san. Shino-kun has told me so much about you two. I do wish that I was able to properly meet Sasuke-san." She said while in a bow, and then took a seat in a chair near the door and facing the other three.

Looking at Otome, Sakura could tell that she was like most Aburame; calm, cool, and calculating. But she also had a warmer personality than Shino did, and Sakura could see a slight smile on her face as she sat there. "So how did the two of you meet?" She asked, hoping that she might here another good story like the one she had hear from Hinata a couple weeks earlier.

"We have been engaged since birth, an arranged marriage. But as children we would always be around each other, and because I was not given a colony to inhabit my body, being around the insects inside of Shino was a bonus. You could say that over the years we have become quite fond of each other, I will enjoy being his wife someday." She said in the normal Aburame speaking tone but still with the slightest playfulness to it and a subtle smile, but in her eyes you could clearly see that she had a somewhat playful nature to her. They weren't emotionless like how most of the Aburame came across, but held a caring look that seemed to be directed at Shino.

"So you're normal?" Kiba asked curiously while still trying to maneuver himself to possible get a peek up her skirt from his vantage point.

With a twitch of his eyebrow Shino looked at his dog loving team mate and friend. "Otome-chan does not hold within her a colony of Kikai insects like myself and is not a Shinobi, so perhaps you could see her as "Normal" Kiba-kun." He said with the slightest hint of agitation in his words.

"He meant no harm Shino-kun." She said after a near silent giggle, getting up she went over and gave the bug user a small pack on the cheek and pulled the door open once more. "It was a pleasure meeting you Sakura-chan, Kiba-san, but I have many things to do this day and hope to see more of you both in the future." With another bow she closed the door, leaving a smiling Sakura, pissed off Kiba, and a blushing Shino.

"What the hell! Sakura gets called Sakura-chan and I'm still stuck with san??" Kiba said loudly once he knew she was out of hearing range.

Glaring at the dog boy Sakura shook her fist at him dangerously. "And why would that matter to you? She's engaged to Shino, or did you forget that?"

"B-b-but…she's hot…" He said under his breath just before he was once again sent flying through the window of the hospital. With another sigh Shino got up to once again retrieve Kiba from Sakura's wrath.

"So her meeting us was why you were all nervous?" She asked as he reached for the door.

"Is it only natural for someone to be nervous when the person they will marry meets two of that person's best friends?" He said as he slid open the door and silently went to fetch Kiba and admit him to be healed once again, leaving Sakura by herself with a smile on her face.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"POP!" The balloon exploded once more laving Naruto laying on the ground after getting knocked back from the force of it.

Looking up Arashi saw the sign for Tanzaku City above them and the view of the large city before them. He also looked down at the deflated ball in his hand with a small rip in it. Over the time since they left Otafaku town Arashi had taken what Jiraiya had said into consideration and had been putting a great deal of work ingot getting it. Eventually the holes began to get smaller and he could feel like the ball was about to pop. But it would still rip open and he would be disappointed in himself.

Looking up at the city before them Jiraiya smiled at the memories of the woman they were searching to find. "Tsunade is short tempered and impatient, you know. Hey, Naruto, you have no time to lie on the ground. We need to hurry, or we won't now where to bad-tempered woman is going to."

"Hey Ero-Sennin!" Naruto shouted as he leapt to his feet and pointed a finger accusingly at his Sensei. "Is that appropriate to say to an apprentice who's working hard!?!"

"Shut up, Tsunade come first right now."

Grumbling, Naruto followed after Jiraiya while Arashi was thinking about the situation at hand. 'What kind of person is this Tsunade…Ero-Sennin himself is trying to find her.' He then pulled out another ball and jogged ahead to catch up with the other two.

'I hope she's still here.' The Sannin thought as he frowned at the feeling he was getting.

After an annoying time in a gambling den Naruto wanted to find this woman so he could get back to training. "Geeze, she isn't anywhere!" Jiraiya said out of agitation. It was then that an old woman at a betting booth caught Naruto's attention. After some baiting he went over and bought one ticket.

"You're much cuter when you're fat!" Naruto said to himself with a smile after he had somehow won bi from one bet.

'I didn't expect him to win with one slip! Maybe he has some talent in this field…it would just add to the crap he can do…its not fair!' Jiraiya thought to himself as they walked down the street. 'Forget about that for now Jiraiya…where did Tsunade go? She shouldn't have been able to travel far, guessing from the time.' Looking to his right he saw the path that lead up to the higher part of the city. 'I guess I'm low on choices…I'll have to look from high ground.' He then reached into his vest and pulled out his trusty hand held telescope. 'This town should be a castle town…if I go up to the castle I can get a good vantage point.' "Naruto, Arashi, this way!"

"Hai!" They both yelled as they ran back to where Jiraiya was. Getting to the top Naruto had something stirring on his mind. "Hey Ero-Sennin! Where's the Castle?" Looking up Jiraiya was shocked not to see the Castle at the center of the city. Bolting off towards it Jiraiya had a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Reaching the top they were all shocked to see the castle completely destroyed and laying in rubble. "What…happened here?" Arashi asked Jiraiya as they stood atop an alley wall looking over at the destroyed castle.

Suddenly a group of townspeople came running by. "Hey, you over there! What happened here?" Jiraiya called out to a man below him.

"You guys should run away too! There's a monster up there!" He yelled up to the three.

"What kind of monster was it exactly?" Jiraiya asked, having a bad feeling about the answer.

"A Snake! A huge snake it destroyed the castle instantly!!" The man then ran off as fast as he could.

"Hey, how big was the snake? In my village I encountered a huge snake once! Hey!" Naruto shouted out at the man as he ran for his life.

"Hurry up Naruto, that snake is probably the same one you saw before." With a frown the three of them sped off towards the area the people were running from. 'Orochimaru-teme!!' Running fast he looked over to see an area of destruction, jumping down off the roof. Looking it over it was definitely Tsunade's work; an entire section of the wall had been destroyed with looked like one blow. "We're just a little bit too late."

"That snake did his too?" Arashi asked the now scowling Sannin.

"No…Tsunade did. Now hurry up, she's no longer here, we need to catch up."

"Now what, its always "Let's go, let's go" with him." Arashi grumbled as they moved on to find Tsunade.

It was now dark and they were starting to get cramps in their stomachs from their lack of eating that day. "Oh, she's nowhere to be found, "This way", "That was", and at the end we don't even have any clues. Plus now I'm starving!"

"You're right Naruto, for the time being, let's just have dinner here." He said as he turned to the entrance of a pub.

"What!? This place is a pub!"

"Yeah, so? What' wrong with that?" The white haired man asked bluntly.

"How many times do we have to tell you, we're not old enough to drink baka!" Arashi said as he once again held a small ice ball in between his hands.

"N-now Arashi, there's no need for the ice! No one said anything about drinking, kids can just eat snacks!" He said waving his hands in front of his face, not really wanting another bruised head. Lifting up the flaps of cloth at the door the three enter into the pub with Naruto grumbling about how they could have just gone to get some ramen. Looking up a blonde headed woman caught his attention, she was sitting with a black haired woman and a pig on the other side of the pub, there was something familiar about her….then it hit him. "TSUNADE!?!?!"

"JIRAIYA!?!" She yelled back as she saw his form appear before her eyes.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**There we go I finally go it done, OMG that too so much longer than what I thought it was going to be. Really I just started my new job and have been uber busy all week long so I couldn't really wok on it. Gomen! Thank Kami-sama I'm done with this chapter.**

**The poll for if Hinata goes with them during the time skip or not is still open so if you haven't voted go ahead. **

**Also two people have already done it, but this is a special thing. If you comment on every single one of my chapters your prize will be the right to name one character in the upcoming arc after the Tsunade arc. RasenganRendan01 and Royal Snaza already have done so, so they get to name a character.**

**So Review! Please!**


	24. Godaime Hokage?

**Review Reply:**

**Animeskid:** Well yes, Naruto does rock. And of course I'm going to continue!

**Royal Snaza:** I appreciate your continuous support and I know I messed up with that one, your comments were unnecessary; you had already told me abut it. Plus where the hell have you been, you haven't been online in a while!

**RasenganRendan01: **Well you were the first to comment on Otome, and yes I found that part with Kiba to be quite funny.

**Statix44: **Yeah you should comment on the others, haha. But thanks for the review, yours always gives me some inspiration to write more, but with this one I've gotten like no reviews at the time I'm filling out your reply and I am so uninspired. So keep up the reviews!

**NarutoDaFox: **Thanks, I try to make them good.

**Chosha Kurenai:** Thanks for the concern about my job, its all good. I'm now a Pharmacy Tech at a Pharmacy near me. But yeah you're the first one to pick up on that little thing between Orochimaru and Baa-chan.

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto, only Arashi! XD

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(Previously)

"_N-now Arashi, there's no need for the ice! No one said anything about drinking, kids can just eat snacks!" He said waving his hands in front of his face, not really wanting another bruised head. Lifting up the flaps of cloth at the door the three entered into the pub with Naruto grumbling about how they could have just gone to get some ramen. Looking up a blonde headed woman caught his attention, she was sitting with a black haired woman and a pig on the other side of the pub, there was something familiar about her….then it hit him. "TSUNADE!?!?!"_

"_JIRAIYA!?!" She yelled back as she saw his form appear before her eyes._

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What are you doing here of all places!?" Tsunade shouted out as she stared at her long time team mate and friend.

"Finally we found you, I'm tired." Jiraiya smirked as he headed over to grab a seat in the booth the other Sannin was sitting in, leaving Arashi and Naruto still standing in the doorway gaping at the woman standing before them.

'Wow…that hottie is Tsunade!?!' Naruto thought before wide smile crept across his face. 'I sure hope Sasame-chan ends up looking like that! Is she really 50 years old?' He said in his mind while getting an eyeful of cleavage from the busty blonde as she was standing in shock at seeing Jiraiya. Whipping the smile from his face he and Arashi quickly made their way into the remaining room in the booth, with Arashi sitting in between Jiraiya and Naruto.

After a while the three newcomers had food in front of them and were eating quietly, Jiraiya was sipping a cup of sake while looking inquisitorially at the brown eyed woman sitting before him. It was positively silent amongst the six sitting at the booth, and was making Shizune think. 'To have met both of the other Sannin in one day like this…'

With a smile Naruto popped a small fish into his mouth as the two Sannin downed more sake and Arashi was calmly sipping some tea while keeping an eye up and alert to get a feel for the situation. Downing another cup of the intoxicating liquid, Tsunade looked down at the table and finally broke the silence between all of them. "Nevertheless…I seem to have met many people today who bring back memories."

Jiraiya leaned over and refilled Tsunade's cup with the last of their sake with a frown. "Orochimaru, right?" Shizune's eyes widened slightly at his correct guess. "What happened?"

Tsunade then shot Shizune a glare the promised pain if she were to tell what transpired between her and the Snake Sannin mere hours ago. "Nothing much…just a little greeting." Reaching into her tight fitting grey sleeveless shirt, she pulled out a blue deck of cards and began shuffling them, gaining odd looks from the two Genin before her.

Jiraiya frowned and moved his plate aside and in front of Arashi as Tsunade placed the deck down before him to shuffle himself. 'So this is Tsunade-sama, the female ninja who can cure any wound. I wonder if that's true, plus she's still a Baa-chan even with that appearance…' Arashi thought as he took another sip from his tea, and then popped a piece of Toro (A/N: That's sushi for those who don't know) in his mouth while still keeping his gaze on the Sannin.

"You too, what do you want from me?" She asked as Jiraiya began to slowly shuffle the cards.

"To be perfectly honest…" He then put the fully shuffled deck back down at the center of the table. "Tsunade, Konoha has issued a request for you to become the Godaime Hokage." Tsunade tensed up as she reached for the cards after hearing that, but her reaction was by far the smallest one. Naruto and Arashi both began to choke on the food they were in the process of eating, Shizune gaped in shock at Jiraiya, and even TonTon raised an eyebrow.

But after a second Tsunade looked completely unaffected, she simply dealt the cards with her poker face on. All the while the two boys were frantically pounding their chests so as not to choke to death after hearing possibly the biggest surprise ever, short of learning about Sandaime's death. Finally getting the sushi down the right pipe, Arashi looked intensely at Tsunade with thoughts racing through his head. 'Godaime Hokage!? This is so sudden, I thought we were only going to find her, not offer her our future job!' But after his initial shock and somewhat outrage, he calmed down and thought more on the subject. 'So the counsel must have wanted to get a new Hokage fast because of the state of the village, and who better than one of the Sannin…Ero-Sennin wouldn't make a good Hokage at all and he probably wouldn't want to do it even if he was asked. So this is why he's been so desperate to find her, and he knew that if he told us we were searching for out new Hokage that Naruto and I wouldn't participate seeing how it's what we want to do.' Coming out of his thoughts, the Himura watched as the two Sannin looked at their hands in the game.

"Sarutobi-sensei is…" Jiraiya said, looking up from his cards with an expression that confirmed what Orochimaru had told the two women earlier.

'So it was true, Sandaime-sama really is dead…' Shizune thought with a visibly saddened look on her face.

"Orochimaru did it right? I heard…he told me himself." Tsunade retorted in an uninterested voice.

'Orochimaru did it!?!' Naruto thought as he scowled hard at the new information he had just received, looking over he could see Arashi had a similar look on his face as well. "Orochimaru killed Oji-san!?" Naruto said with fiery hatred in his voice as he looked over at his Sensei for answers.

"Yes, Orochimaru, a Sannin like us…killed his own Sensei." Jiraiya responded solemnly.

"Why? Sannin are Konoha Shinobi right? Then why!?" Arashi yelled, picking up where Naruto had left off while slamming his palms down on the table.

Glancing over at the two Tsunade really looked at them closely for the first time, there was something about them that picked at her mind but she couldn't put her finger on it. "Jiraiya, who are the brats?"

With a small chuckle he spoke up. "The one in orange is Naruto Uzumaki…"

Looking up at with a widened eye look she looked over to Naruto. 'This brat has the Kyuubi inside of him…?'

"…and the other is Arashi Himura." Tsunade then snapped her head back to Arashi and then quickly to Shizune who looked to be trembling.

"What? Y-You said H-Himura right Jiraiya-sama?" She stammered out as she looked at the Himura who didn't look like the typical Himura.

With a smirk on his face the white haired Sannin reached over and ruffled Arashi's hair. "Yes, he may not look it…but he's a full blooded Himura…Kenshi's son."

Looking at the boy Shizune then felt a small trickle of wetness run down her cheeks. "H-Her…son?"

Arashi then looked over at Shizune who was currently looking at him with watery eyes. "Y-You knew my mother?"

She was about to answer but before she could, she was cut off by her master. "Now's not the time Shizune." Looking back at the two she smirked and then looked back at her opponent in the poker game. "So you've taken on more protégés, he really does look like him, and the Himura…change his hair style and he'll look exactly like him."

"You have no idea…" Jiraiya retorted before focusing back on the cards, meanwhile Arashi was gaping at the white haired man. This was because of what had seemed like veiled information about Yondaime. Running his finger over his cards Jiraiya looked intently at the two sixes he had and the eight, he was deciding if he should take them out and try for something with the king and ace he also had. With a smirk he decided for it and took the three cards out and got three more. Spreading them out, he couldn't help but stifle a chuckle to himself when he saw the other two kings and another ace…a full house. With a glare at her friend, Tsunade glanced down at her worthless hand after hearing the triumphant laugh she had grown accustomed to whenever she played with Jiraiya. "I'll say it again…you have been requested to be the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade-hime." Looking at the assortment of random cards in her hand she knew she lost. "And your answer is? Are you willing to accept?"

Looking at her cards she closed her eyes as the words of the snake she had spoken with earlier haunted her. _"I'll revive your brother and the man, both of whom you loved."_ Images of Nawaki and Dan flashed next before she her mind shifted to the seriousness of this day; she now had two choices that would greatly affect Konoha. _"This time I'm going to completely crush Konoha!"_ Orochimaru laughed in her head, at this moment she had the choice of either becoming Konoha's savior…or its executioner…and she just wasn't ready to make that decision. Opening her eyes after about a minute of thought she tossed her cards down to the table indicating that she folded. "Not going to happen…I decline."

Everyone present just looked at her with odd looks, but Jiraiya just smiled at her. "I remember that line. You would use the same line to turn me down when I asked you out." Naruto looked up at Jiraiya for a moment while his brain was still trying to wrap around the fact she refused the title of Hokage, and in that moment he caught a glimmer of sadness in his Sensei's eyes when he said those words.

But the thought was gone momentarily as he was getting confused once more at the situation. "What's going on here?! You said you wanted her to come back to the village so she could check on Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei right? Yet you asked her to be our Hokage!?! And she declined!!"

To this Tsunade gave no response, just simply looked down at her hands sitting on the table. 'You can't be considering the deal with Orochimaru!?' Shizune thought as she looked at her master.

Naruto was still going off on his confused rampage and was currently rubbing his head and basically yelling out. "Don't worry so much Naruto." Jiraiya calmly said, succeeding in getting the Uzumaki to shut up. "Tsunade is the only person who can become the Godaime Hokage. Thanks to her Konoha was able to win many battles. No one has been able to acquire her techniques." He said as memories of Tsunade healing on the battlefield came to his mind, how her ponytails would hover in the air from the chakra she used to heal their Shinobi. But a small smile broke his face as he remembered how well her Jonin vest had show off her curves. "Also, she is the grand-daughter of Shodai Hokage, so she is the most appropriate person for the position, it's in her blood. If she becomes Hokage…she would have to go back to the village and then she could check on those two. This was all a decision made by to top council members of Konoha." Then he shifted his gaze over to Naruto. "Genin like you don't have any say in this matter."

With a frown Naruto crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat while Arashi looked him with a smile. "We'd be Chunin if the exams weren't interrupted!" Naruto muttered under his breath, gaining a laugh from Jiraiya.

"Jiraiya, this kid seems worse that your previous apprentice…in terms of looks, speech and intelligence." Se said smugly as she looked at the ace of hearts in her hand.

Naruto got a couple bulging veins on his neck as he was insulted by a person he had just met. "What did you say!?"

Jiraiya laughed at them and looked at his students. "Well, it's tough for anyone to be compared to Yondaime…but they're more alike than you think…" Tsunade looked at him oddly and then picked up on what he was saying, and Arashi was utterly confused at his statement. "Yondaime really had the talent to become the best ninja alive, and he did; he was smart, reliable, and almost as handsome as his Sensei! And Narut…"

He was then interrupted by the blonde woman. "But even he died quickly." A glum look came over her face as both boys looked at her with smiles, knowing that it was false. "He gave up his life for his village." Sliding her card over she saw the Jack of hearts appear next to the Ace of hearts. "Life is different from money. Whoever puts it at risk so easily is a fool." She spat out coldly, Arashi and Naruto instantly changed their looks to scowls at the woman, she was not only insulting a person who was inside Arashi and hearing all of this, but the person they had idolized for as long as they could remember. Naruto's chopsticks snapped in his hand as he squeezed them in anger while Arashi's fists were clenched hard under the table. "My grandfather and Nidaime, both focused too much on bringing peace to our home more than anything else, but as a result they just died in the middle of their dreams." With another slide of her cards the Queen of hearts was revealed.

"You've changed a lot, Tsunade." Jiraiya said almost sadly as the vision of her in his mind was being skewed into the pessimist before him. "I don't know what you've been thinking all this time but it's changed you."

She let out a slight giggle that sent a chill up the Sannin's spine. "Well, I'm already in my 50s. Age changes people." Her card slid out once more to show the ten of hearts, all she needed was the King of hearts now and it would be a Royal Flush. "It's the same for Sarutobi-sensei. No wonder he died, he was too old to live in his dreams." A deep scowl came over Jiraiya's face after hearing that. Also the two boys were now almost shaking with anger from her statements. "Hm." She said as she saw their expressions and began to slide out the last card…but to her disappointment it was the four of spades. Looking up she sighed heavily and put her cards down. "Being the Hokage is shit, no one but a fool would do it."

In a loud crash both boys leapt up to try and make a dash at the woman over the table but lucky for Tsunade they were both grabbed by the jacket by their Sensei. Now flailing and trying to free themselves they were both glaring at Tsunade intently. Arashi knew that he would probably get destroyed by the Sannin so he was keeping the urge to give her a good shock from one of his Raiton jutsu nestled firmly in the back of his mind. "Stop it you two, we're in a bar."

"Let me go!" Naruto yelled as he and Arashi were tossed back into their seats. But instantly Naruto jumped back on top of the table. "I can't forgive anyone that mocks Oji-san…"

"Or Arashi-sama!" Arashi said from his seat with the same scowl on his face as Naruto.

Tsunade snapped her head over to him questioningly. "How do you know his name?"

"Because I was _named_ after him!!" He snapped back coldly, it felt good to snap back at her but there was also the small part of him that had a bad feeling about talking to a Sannin so harshly.

Picking up where he had left off Naruto continued. "Or Yondaime-sama, I don't care even if she is a woman!" He then slammed his fist into his palm threateningly, Arashi then felt his friend had gone too far and that the repercussions could possibly be painful. "I'm going to kick her ass!" Everyone just looked at Naruto like he was crazy, even the pig.

Tsunade suddenly jumped up to Naruto's level and stared him straight in the eye, her left foot on the table and her left hand resting on her knee. "You've got some guts to say such things to me boy." Naruto knew that right where they were wasn't the best place for a fight so he was holding back the urge to hit her right in the face, Jiraiya simply sighed at his orange clad student. "I say we take this outside…" Tsunade said with a smirk.

"I'd love to!" Naruto growled as Jiraiya released him and they all stepped outside for a moment.

Now in the middle of the street Tsunade and Naruto stood some distance apart with Shizune near the Sannin and Jiraiya and Arashi were standing behind Naruto. "No matter what I look like, I'm still one of the Sannin. I don't have to fight seriously against a Genin like you." Arashi knew not to say anymore than he did and this was the proof for his thoughts.

"What did you say!? I'm no mere Genin!" Naruto shouted back as he slid into his taijutsu stance.

Responding to him readying himself, Tsunade simply lifted up one finger to the boy. "A one minute fight?" Jiraiya asked.

"No, not one minute, one finger. This one finger is enough for you, brat." She said with a confident smirk on her face. "Come on kid."

She had expected him to do something rash and stupid like dash at her wildly while flinging shuriken and kunai at her. But he just stood there and made a single hand sign. "Kai." As she looked at him a burst of wind flew off of him as he stood up straighter than he had been before, giving off a much more powerful stance and look.

"What did he do…?" Jiraiya said to Arashi.

"He released his bracers." He then slid up his jacket sleeve to show the pervert the identical bracer underneath it. "I think she might need more than one finger for this.

Jiraiya just looked bug eyed at the Himura. He hadn't seen those bracers in years and that they both had them boggled his mind. "You mean you both had those on this entire trip!?" He just got a smile and a nod from Arashi; he then looked back to Naruto who now was the one with the smirk as he reached behind him for a weapon.

"I said I wasn't a mere Genin." Then in a flick of his wrist he sent three shuriken blasting out at Tsunade who barely saw the metallic blurs speed her way. Luckily, she moved her head to the side enough to avoid them. But looking back she couldn't find Naruto, he seemed to have disappeared. She was then shocked to find him crouched next to her in mid leg sweep, thinking quick she made a fast back flip and missed getting her feet clipped out from under her by inches. While coming down to her feet she saw an opening and flung her hand upwards, hitting his forehead protector and shooting it straight up in the air. 'Shit!! This isn't good!' He thought as he began to fall slightly back from the impact that sent him off balance. Opening his eyes he saw Tsunade standing firm in front of him as he was off balance. With a smirk from the Sannin she connected her fist hard with his chest, sending him shooting back and skidding across the ground.

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune yelled out, thinking she used too much force. But Naruto rolled up to his feet, gripping his chest.

"That didn't feel like just one finger!" He called out as he saw his forehead protector fall to the ground before his feet. 'She's strong…' He tough as he felt the bruise developing under his jacket.

"Hey kid! I'll ask you one thing before you pass out..." Naruto looked up with a confused look on his face. "Why do you and the Himura get so excited just by hearing the word "Hokage"?"

"Unlike you…unlike you, we really want to become Hokage!" He then looked at her with a large grin on his face; she then looked over to see a similar smile on Arashi's face as well. "Because it's our dream to become Hokage!" Tsunade went wide eyed from hearing those words, her mental visions of Nawaki and Dan suddenly appeared behind Naruto with the same look on their faces and she froze up. 'She's dropped her guard! She's vulnerable now! It's a little too early but I don't care.' He then brought up his right hand to the position he had been working on for over a month. 'I'll use that jutsu!'

"He wouldn't! He's not completed it yet!" Arashi said to his Sensei, who was just smiling.

'Concentrate!' Holding his two hands together a spiraling blue orb of concentrated chakra formed into the incomplete form he had been working on.

Tsunade saw this and was frozen in place once again out of shock. In a flash, Naruto sped towards her looking no more than an orange and blue blur. 'Damn! This juts is…!'

"Eat this!!" Naruto yelled out as he closed in more and more.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Squad 4 set up a perimeter around them! Squads 6 and 7 be prepared to attack if Squad 4 is unable to fend them off!" The Oto Jonin shouted as he and the rest of the men at Oto Base 27 prepared for the incoming treat. Looking over at the surveillance monitor next to him he saw the enemy walk calmly up to where the camera was, then suddenly it lost signal. "They're here! Get ready!"

Meanwhile above ground two figures were standing in from of a large doorway that lead down into the ground. "It seems like this one actually has people in it, hmm." The blonde in the Akatsuki cloak said to the hunched over form of his partner. "What should we do about it Sasori-danna?" Deidara asked with a large grin on his face and his hands stuffed inside two bags he had strapped to his waist.

"Normally I'd say just blow it up…but we haven't had much fun lately…." Sasori said from beneath his straw hat.

"You heard him, set up a perimeter!" An Oto Nin shouted as about twenty Oto Chunin from the looks of their vests surrounded the two Akatsuki members. The Chunin that surrounded them were all shaky, they had all heard the rumors of two people in black cloaks with red clouds on them going around and systematically destroying any Oto bases in their path. The only information they could get from the attacks were that there were no survivors at any base and that each one had been blown to smithereens.

"I'll ask this once…where is Orochimaru!?" The human shaped one asked to the Shinobi surrounding him. "Does anybody know, hmm?"

None of the ninja budged or even opened their mouths; they all just stayed in their formation of a 20 meter perimeter around the two. "It looks like they won't talk…you know what to do Deidara…"

"Hai, I'm on it Sasori-danna." Deidara said as he some how pulled some clay out of his hand and began to shape it, causing the Chunin to become suspicious of his abilities. With a large cloud of smoke a big clay bird appeared and he jumped on top of it, hovering a good twenty feet above his partner's head.

"Now I can begin…" Sasori said grimly from behind the flap of cloth covering his mouth. Then suddenly a flash of gleaming metal shot out of his cloak and finally came to rest as a gigantic bladed tail extending out of the cloak.

"AHHHHGH!!!" Every single Chunin surrounding Sasori suddenly screamed in pain as their whole upper bodies fell to the ground dead, leaving twenty pairs of legs simply standing around the Akatsuki member.

"Oh, nice and quick hmm?" With a swoop of his bird Deidara descended on the incoming squad with a sadistic grin on his face. Weaving through the attacking Shinobi he couldn't help but laugh maniacally. After making a pass through them he pulled up and turned around with a hand sigh held up in front of his face. The Shinobi below were all amazed that they were all alive, but that was until one of them spotted a small clay spider latched onto the back of one of his comrade's necks, looking around quickly he saw they were on everyone. Quickly he reached back and felt one on him but it was all too late. "KASTU!!!" Deidara yelled as each spider exploded violently, sending each Shinobi's head flying off their body. "AHH HAHAHA!! This is too much fun Sasori no Danna!! Why haven't we done this at each base, hmm?"

The last squad watched in horror as they saw their comrade's heads roll across the ground towards them. "T-They're demons!!" One of them screamed out as he turned to flee for his life, seeing this all of the remaining Shinobi had the same idea. Turning to follow the man they quickly saw his now decapitated body lying in a bloody pool on the ground with Sasori standing over the corpse. "We're all dead!" Another one shouted as Sasori began to trudge over towards them, when suddenly a kunai zipped past his face and into the ground.

"No you're not!" A voice said from above them, turning around quickly they all saw a man standing on a large tree branch looking down at them. He was in standard Oto Jonin clothing but with the addition of a purple ass bow.

"Daichi-taicho!!" All of the Chunin yelled in surprise, their leader at the base had showed up to save them all, or so they thought.

"BOOOOM!!" A huge explosion erupted from the center of the group of Shinobi, sending blood and body parts flying everywhere. Deidara then came swooping down on his massive clay bird cackling hysterically. "Did you see their faces Sasori-danna!? They really thought they would get out of here!! That's priceless!"

Looking up at the Jonin standing in the tree Sasori began to chuckle deeply. "Daichi was it? Tell us where Orochimaru is and I might decide to let you live."

"Like I would tell you…you demons anything about Orochimaru-sama!!" The Jonin shouted back in anger at the slaughter of his subordinates.

"Do you have any idea who we are, hmmm? You wouldn't be speaking in such disrespect if you did."

Leaping down to the ground, he pulled out a kunai and got in a battle ready position. "I don't know you Blondie…but we have files on you Sasori of the Red Sand!" With a glare the Jonin was about to pop to avenge his subordinates. "So why don't you come out and face me man to puppet?"

Then Daichi was thrown off balance by a hard laugh from Sasori. "Why would I waste my time of a small fry like you?" He then turned to Deidara. "Could you give us some space?"

With a nod he jumped back to his bird and moved back to watch the fight that would most likely be a short one. With a guttural scream the Oto Shinobi made a feral dash at Sasori with his arm raised to bring the kunai down on him. When in a flash of metal his arm was gone at the elbow and he was now on his knees screaming in pain. Sasori then began to laugh as he trudged closer to the profusely bleeding man. "Are you sure you don't want to tell us where Orochimaru is? If you do I'll end your life painlessly rather than letting you bleed to death in this forest."

Daichi then grinned evilly as he unzipped his flack jacket to reveal about a hundred exploding tags igniting. "I chose neither…I'll see you in hell Sasori!!" Caught slightly off guard by this Sasori was wide eyed as they blew up. "BOOOOOOOOM!!!"

"SASORI!!" Deidara yelled out when the Jonin's body blew up into a fiery inferno. But to his surprise when the smoke cleared he saw Sasori was perfectly fine, his tail had wrapped around him several times to create a metallic barrier.

"Let's get out of here; we got nothing from these fools." Sasori grumbled as he slowly moved away from the underground compound.

"Okay then…I think C1 will be enough for this." Taking out more clay he molded it into several long centipedes, in a puff of smoke they grew to an enormous size and began to dig down into the ground. The two Akatsuki members then began to make their way to where another base might be while the centipedes dug under the base and latched themselves onto the bottom of it. "Katsu!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto as getting closer by the millisecond and Tsunade was about to take the spinning ball of chakra directly in the chest. In a fast motion she slammed her fist into the ground, the force of the blow cracked open a small gorge in it. Just as Naruto was about to connect with the attack he lost his footing because of the hole, falling forward his chakra exploded the instant it touched the ground, sending him flying backwards. He landed in the a few feet back and got stuck between the sides of the crevice.

Standing up Tsunade looked down at the spiral crater that Naruto had made once the chakra connected with the ground. 'Don't tell me…I didn't expect him to use Yondaime's jutsu. However, he still hasn't mastered it yet.' She then looked up to see Naruto stuck in the crack in the earth she had made. 'That jutsu was just an imitation.'

Seeing Naruto down and unable to get up Arashi and Shizune went over and helped pull him out. 'That Tsunade, she's always had the insane strength.' Shifting his gaze the self proclaimed mega pervert looked over at the proudly standing woman before him. 'I still remember the time she punched me and I flew 100 meters! Oh well, I guess Naruto still isn't strong enough.'

"Are you all right Naruto-kun?" Shizune asked as she dusted off the boy's shoulders.

"Jiraiya, was it you who taught him Rasengan?" Tsunade asked in a commanding voce.

Hearing that Naruto perked up, Arashi already knew the name but had refused to tell Naruto. 'Rasengan?'

"You could say I'm his Sensei." Jiraiya replied vaguely.

"That just could only be used by you and Yondaime. Teaching him something he cannot learn…you call yourself a teacher? And am I wrong to guess you've taught the Himura too?" The silence from her old friend reassured her suspicions. "You've got to be kidding! So that's why these kids say nonsense like wanting be become Hokage!"

"It's not nonsense!" Naruto yelled out at her. "You freaking idiot! If I had three days, I could master this jutsu!"

"Hmm, and what about you Himura?" Tsunade asked of Arashi.

Looking slightly down Arashi shook his head no. "No, I couldn't do it in three days. We've only been learning Rasengan for about a month and a half, but I haven't gotten to stage three yet. Naruto would have a better chance than me." He said disappointed in himself and ashamed.

'A month and a half!?! These kids are already that far along!?! How is that possible?' "Fine, you said it kid. Guys are supposed to stand by what they say."

"Ha, I don't go back on my word! That's my team's nindo!" Naruto said confidently, causing Arashi to stand up straight and smile.

"You're team's nindo?" Shizune said more or less to herself.

"Yeah, our third member of Team 7 isn't with us right now. But that's her nindo as well and Naruto and I's." Arashi said to the black haired woman.

"Who's the third member?"

"Hinata Hyuuga…my girlfriend." Arashi said proudly pointing to himself while a huge smile crossed his face.

'Hyuuga?' Shizune thought. "Jiraiya, is she Hiashi-sama's daughter?"

"Why yes, yes she is…but I assure you I had nothing to do with the formation of that team. They all were actually best of friends before they were even assigned teams; Kakashi Hatake was their original Sensei." He said with a smile.

'A second generation team! Those are hard to come by…' Tsunade's mind said to itself as she was formulating another plan for her current situation. "Back to you kid, if you won't go back on your word…let's make a bet. I will give you one week. If you manage to master that jutsu, I will accept you as being capable of being Hokage. Also I'll give you this necklace." She then pointed to the crystal on a black string that hung around her neck.

"Tsunade-sama! But that's you precious…" Shizune began to stammer out before Naruto interrupted her.

"I don't need that worthless necklace!"

"You shouldn't say that Naruto." The white haired Sannin said with a grin. "That crystal is only one of two in the world; it's worth enough to buy mountains! It belonged to Shodai Hokage."

'Amazing!' He thought as ryou signs appeared in his eyes. "Oh, I guess it's alright then."

Jiraiya just looked at Naruto in a new light. 'What a greedy guy.'

"Alright, however if you're not able to master it within one week…you lose." She then held up Gama-chan for Naruto to see. "And I will take all of your money."

"Gama-chan!! When did she…? When did she steal it!?" Arashi couldn't help but laugh at Naruto's actions.

"Tsunade-sama, why are you…? That necklace…" Shizune said in concern for Tsunade and her most precious possession.

"As if there's a chance he'll do it, we're going Shizune." She turned to go back to where she and Shizune were staying.

But Shizune didn't go yet; she was currently looking at her master still very concerned. 'Never in her life has she bet that necklace.' The words of the grey haired boy in glasses replayed in her head. _"You don't need to answer right away, but it must be within one week."_

Later that night Arashi and Naruto were in their hotel room alone, Jiraiya had gone out to a bar for something he wouldn't tell them about. The two were currently playing a small game of poker like their Sensei had earlier in the day, when they were interrupted by a knock at the door. "Who could be here this late?" Naruto asked the Himura who merely shrugged his shoulders. After another knock Naruto went to the door. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming…."

But before he could open the door it was opened from the outside, standing on the other side of the door was Shizune. "I'm sorry to disturb you two this late, but can I talk with you both for a bit?"

"I wanted to get lots of rest so I can train hard tomorrow." Naruto said bluntly while Arashi got up out of the bed and made a mental note to not let Naruto open the door anymore.

"Gomen, but I don't want you to misunderstand Tsunade-sama. Also…about that necklace."

"Hm, I don't care about that Baa-chan…" Naruto said under his breath as he let the woman in.

"Tsunade-sama isn't the kind of person you think she is. Don't talk as if you knew anything about her!" She yelled in defense of her master and friend. "G-Gomen na sai, I didn't mean to yell at you…She didn't use to be like this, she used to be a kind and loving person. But…she changed. Because of those days…"

"Those days? What happened to her?" Arashi said as he pulled out a chair for her to sit on while they both went and sat down on one of the beds to hear her out.

"Her dreams, love, and hope…she lost everything. The only thing she has left is that necklace. To Tsunade-sama, that necklace is more important that her life, it isn't something she can just throw away."

"Like I care, she challenged me didn't she?"

Shizune then frowned a bit and spoke in a harsher tone. "That necklace is not something that someone like you should wear! It's not an ordinary necklace! If anyone else besides Tsunade-sama tried to wear it, that person will definitely…die!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tsunade was currently sitting atop the gate to the city; the sight was a few feet above her and the charms waved veraciously in the wind. Reaching up she held onto her necklace as she thought back to all of the pain it had caused her.

(Many years ago in Konoha)

A much younger Tsunade was standing atop a building in the heart of Konoha in red miniskirt, a white shirt that cut off at the midriff, and a metal mesh body glove under it that extended down to her thighs. Her hair was pulled back into a high pony tail and she didn't have the purple diamond mark upon her forehead like she would later in life. Next to her was a young boy with light brown hair, a dark teal long sleeved shirt that had a grey covering that acted as a kind of turtle neck and went down to about his shoulders, a Konoha forehead protector, and grey pants. Upon his tan face were two ever present blush marks on his cheeks that made Tsunade think he was the cutest little brother ever. "Nawaki, for you on your 12th birthday. Congratulations!" She said while handing the boy a small green box with a red bow.

Taking the box he scoffed at his sister smugly. "I'm not a kid anymore, so I don't need any presents."

"Baka, what are you saying? You're still a kid! Well, just open it you ingrate." She then turned to look out over the village on the perfect blue skied day that it was. "You'll definitely like it."

Unwrapping the box Nawaki found a silver case, opening it his eyes sparkled at the thing he had desired for many years, he held up his grandfather's necklace before his eyes with a huge grin on his face. "Nee-chan, could this be…"

"That's right, that's grandfather's, Shodai Hokage's necklace." She said with a smile.

"Thank you Nee-chan!!" He yelled as he leapt on her in a gigantic hug.

"I thought is would be better if you had it. You've wanted it for a long time haven't you? Keep is safe, promise?"

"I promise, but it's not only this necklace. This village is Grandfather's treasure as well." He said happily as he put the necklace around his neck. "I have to protect it."

"Nawaki…" Tsunade said, not knowing her brother had such a deep love for the village.

Nawaki was now looking out over the village as if making a speech. "I am the Shodai Hokage's grandson."

"That's quite a dream. Guys are supposed to stand by what they say."

"Yeah, I want to become like Grandfather. One day I'll receive the Hokage name! Because becoming Hokage is my dream!!" He said loudly as if wanting the whole village to hear him.

"The hurry up and take off your forehead protector Nawaki." He just turned to his sister with an odd look upon his blush marked face. "C'mon, I have another present for you." Reaching over she untied his forehead protector. "It'll make your dreams come true." Leaning in she gave him a light kiss on his forehead. After a second of letting the meaning of the kiss sink in he smiled a bright fox-like smile. Tsunade returned the smile with one of her own; she had a feeling that it would be a good day.

But the next day Konoha was shrouded in a dark fog that just gave off the feeling of death and Tsunade was standing in front of a doorway that lead to the room where it was said an Iwa Shinobi had snuck into the village and slaughtered some of their ninjas. Tears had been streaming down her face ever since she heard that Nawaki was one of the victims. With her were her team mates, Jiraiya was in a white robe with red flame patters at the base and arms with a green trim, and Orochimaru was wearing a dark blue battle robe with side armor. Tsunade, still in a traumatic trance made a step to go and see the bodies. Jiraiya grabbed her shoulder and pulled her into a tight hug. "It's better to just cry, don't look." With those words spoken she latched onto him, feeling the only security she had felt that entire day within his strong arms. She held onto him tightly as she cried hard into his chest.

"Shhh, it's alright Tsunade-hime." He said quietly into her ear as he rubbed her quivering back, still holding her tight, keeping her safe from the outside world and her own feelings.

"It doesn't matter if she were to look." Orochimaru said coldly with the smallest hint of a smirk on his face. "Even if she were to look, she couldn't tell that it's her younger brother."

"Stop it Orochimaru! She's been through enough!" Jiraiya snapped, shielding his princess from the cold emotionless words of their snaky team mate.

"Right now, we're at war. This is what it's like when people die. On the battlefield, there are no doctors. But, kids are too rash and get into things they shouldn't…" He said with an odd smirk and a glint in his eye that the other two didn't see from underneath his long dark hair. Meanwhile he pulled his hand out of his robe to show a black necklace string. "Especially the day after receiving such a present." Opening his hand the necklace of the Shodai Hokage dangled from his white fingers.

The very next day Tsunade found herself in Konoha's Shinobi graveyard, the gloomy weather from the horrible day before had gone and now it was Konoha's usual beautiful weather. Tsunade had borrowed one of Jiraiya's jackets the day before, a deep blue one that still held a shred of his distinct scent, for some reason if kept her reminded of the security she had felt while in his arms, and she had changed her hair to the twin pony tails she would wear the rest of her life.

The necklace as back around her neck like it had been for years and she was holding onto it tightly while looking down at the name on the headstone before her. "Nawaki…" She said as tears well up in her eyes once more.

"_It's not only this necklace."_ His voice played over in her head as her tears fell down and splashed off the pale green of the crystal. Gripping it tightly her brother's voice kept speaking in her head. _"This village is Grandfather's treasure. I have to protect it."_

Later that night Sarutobi was having meeting concerning the deaths or many shinobi inside the village and the course of the war. Tsunade had made sure of herself to bring up what she felt was a necessary plan for the success of Konoha in the future. "First of all, we should include a medical specialist in teams of four or more shinobi. Doing so will increase a team's survival rate and give the mission a better chance for success. Therefore, priority should be given to the training of medical shinobi and the research of new medical techniques. I think it will help solve this problem."

A much younger Sandaime Hokage looked his student in the eye and saw the desperation hidden behind them. "What you have said is true, but we are a war right now." He said as he stroked his dark brown goatee. "Even if we had the resources to do so, we do not have the time to train and create teams. That's not realistic; the enemy will not wait for us."

A flash of anger crossed Tsunade's heart as he said those words. "What did you say you geezer?! Then we can never…" Jiraiya was about to stand and speak on her behalf but before he could someone else did.

"I also agree with her opinion." A Jonin with long sliverish blue hair, dark green eyes, black pants and sleeves, and a Konoha Jonin vest stood near the blonde speaking. Jiraiya could only glare at the man for taking his opportunity. "We shouldn't waste the lives of our shinobi, as we have been. Therefore we should do something about this." Tsunade just looked at him in shock, that someone had agreed with her and was backing her proposal.

After the meeting Tsunade ran to catch up with the Jonin that had spoken in support of her. "Anou…thanks for before…" She said as they both stood outside the gates for the meeting hall.

"What you said earlier was right….it's pretty late, do you want me to walk you home?" He asked calmly with a smile.

"Is that aright with you? Where's your home?"

Turning to her with a big smile he chuckled and answered her. "In the opposite direction."

"Oh, then there's no need. It's alright."

"I don't mind. I wanted to talk with you anyway." He then began waling in the direction of Tsunade's house. "This is the street I used to take to pick up my younger sister. I used to enjoy that." Tsunade instantly picked up on the emphasis on 'used to'. "Until one year ago I would pick her up, but then Konoha was attacked."

'He and I are the same.' She thought as she looked at him intently, and then ran to catch up with him.

But what she didn't see was that once they were gone and down the street, Jiraiya came running out of the meeting hall with a bouquet of roses and a smile on his face. "Tsunade-hime…?" He looked around for her but couldn't find her, and then out of the corner of his eye he saw the two of them walking together towards her house in smiles. He then slammed the roses into a nearby trash can and stormed off towards his place of residence.

(1 year later)

"Tomorrow will be the mission…" Her and Dan had been together now almost a year and were currently standing on a bridge overlooking their reflection in the clear water below. Tsunade still had Jiraiya's jacket, even though she had been with Dan for so long, she still felt good in it and the slight smell of Jiraiya still took her back to the feeling of being wrapped up in his muscular arms. No matter how much she loved Dan, she just couldn't get that feeling from him when he held her.

"Being a shinobi shouldn't be about fighting and losing those you love." He said while looking deep into her chocolate eyes." Dan wasn't wearing his standard Jonin uniform at the moment but was in a pair of dark green pants and a dark grey turtleneck. "Since life is so fragile in the world we live in, I will risk my life to end the war. I will do whatever it takes. I love my village and my comrades. That's why…I want to protect it. Ever since my sister died, that has been the only thing keeping me going….that's why I want to be Hokage. So I can protect everyone, because becoming Hokage is my dream…"

Hearing those words again, Tsunade looked down at the reflection of them and griped the necklace tightly. "Dan." Leaning over, she gave him a kiss on his forehead like she had done with Nawaki. "I want you to...accept this." She then slid the necklace around his neck with a smile.

But as with the last time, that smile was fated to fade. The very next day, along the border of the Waterfall Country and Earth Country, Tsunade was desperately pushing chakra into a very wounded Dan. The necklace still hanging around his neck. "Hang in there Dan!"

"Tsunade…" He squeaked out in pain. "I don't…want to die yet. There are still so many things…to do…"

"Don't talk anymore Dan! You're not going to die!" She shouted at him.

"His kidneys have already stopped working." One of the other shinobi assisting her said to her solemnly. "Even you, the legendary healer Tsunade can't save him."

"I…can't bear to…die in this kind of place." Dan said while coughing up blood.

"It's alright now. I've stopped the bleeding." Tsunade said with a smile, lying to herself and to Dan. "Everything is going to be fine! You'll be fine Dan!"

But Dan saw right through her lies. "I see. I'm glad…"

"No!" Tsunade then shoved more and more chakra into him, desperately trying to save him. "Dan! Hang in there!" His eyes began to slowly close. "DAN!!" Then slowly they shut completely, never to open again. "Kuso! Why won't it stop bleeding?!" Tsunade screamed to herself as she was still trying to save him from death itself. "Stop! Stop it!" She continued chanting it to herself until her assistant had to pull her back from the corpse.

"It's useless! He's already dead!"

Wide eyed, she looked down at the blood that covered her hands, as they began to shake. Seeing the blood everywhere she finally gave a scram of fear that echoed through the forest. The very next day she took Shizune, Dan's niece, and left the village. But around her neck was once again the necklace that caused her so much pain, but was the only tie to her family and her loved ones.

(Present)

After reliving those painful memories again, Tsunade was crouched over hugging her knees and weeping.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"…And then she and I left the village to live outside of it, it held to many painful memories for Tsunade-sama." Shizune wrapped up her telling of what had happened to her master all those years ago. "I hope you two understand her at least a little better, Naruto-kun, Arashi-kun. From those days, Tsunade-sama has lived in fear." Getting up with a glum look in his eye, Naruto went and put on his shoes and headed for the door, leaving the other two still sitting down. "Naruto-kun?"

"I'm going to train now." He replied as he looked back at her with a sad understanding on his face, then left.

Shizune turned to leave but was stopped by the voice of the other person in the room. "Anou…Shizune-san…did you really know my mother?"

Shizune then went over and sat next to him with a smile on her face. What she did next surprised Arashi greatly; she leaned over and grabbed him in a tight hug. Releasing him she then reached into her robe and pulled out a folded up picture. "Yes I did, she was my Jonin Sensei."

Arashi then looked down at the old faded picture, he couldn't make out much but he could see a bit of what his mother looked like. She was standing thee in a Jonin vest with her forehead protector acting as a belt, much like Ino did, and a long deadly looking katana strapped to her back. She was pretty pale, with jet black eyes, a soft loving smile adorned her face, her black hair fell freely back down to her mid back and was kept in place by a red head band. There were two spiky bangs that fell down over the head band to the side of her face, framing it. But looking down he could have sworn he had seen the other people before. "Who are the others? I think I've seen them before."

Shizune smiled, thinking back to the days before she had left with Tsunade. The days she had spent with her two closest friends. She pointed to a boy in the picture that looked several years younger than Shizune did in it; he had his forehead protector in the form of a bandana head covering, and a weird sickly look to him. "That's Hayate Gekko…"

"Oh! I do know him! He was the proctor for a section of the Chunin Exams." Arashi said, Shizune then light up. She hadn't known if any of them were still alive, odds were that with the job they had that they might have died. "But he was always coughing, pretty weird." She then laughed hard as she remembered that.

"That's a permanent genjutsu he has, it's supposed to make his enemies fell sympathy for him so they don't fight their hardest." Arashi nodded in understanding, something like that was a psychological factor that could possibly be a deciding factor in a close fight. "Actually I've never known him to be sick a day in his life. At least the time I was around him…"

"Why does he look so much younger than you and that other guy?" It had been bothering him for a little bit and wanted to know why.

"That's because he is younger, six years younger. He is genius at kenjutsu, so he was placed on our team because of your mother's talent with a sword. He flourished under her teachings; I've never seen anyone as good with a sword as those two." She said with a wide smile while she subconsciously stroked the photo, over the face of the last person in it.

Seeing this Arashi had to really look hard to see anything, the place seemed to have been rubbed off in some spots. But looking closely he could see that he had light brown hair, a forehead protector similar to Hayate's except it was backwards, and a simple black shirt. He had an uninterested look on his face but was looking slightly out of the corer of his eye at the young smiling Shizune, and in his mouth was a long and thin senbon. That was what made it click in his head, he did know him. "Is that Genma-san?"

Shizune gasped, she hadn't heard that name other than in her mind in years. "Hai, that's Genma Shiranui. How do you know him?" She said, but in reality she was just relieved that both of them were still alive and apparently well.

"He was the proctor for the finals of the Chunin Exams. By the way, what's up with that senbon?"

She laughed at his question as she folded the picture back up and put it back in her robe. "It's just a habit he picked up, he said it was a way to always have a weapon on hand but I don't know, we never really got it ourselves." She then got up with a smile and headed for the door. "I'm sure you want to get to training yourself. But I did enjoy this."

Jumping up Arashi had determination in his eyes as he grabbed a large bag of rubber balls. "Yeah, thanks for showing me that. I'll see you later Shizune-neechan." He said as he ran out of the room with a big smile, leaving her in the room by herself with a smile decorating her face as well.

Running outside the city, Arashi found a small open area that seemed just perfect for his training, he had passed Naruto a little while earlier to find him not even working with the balloon any more and had instead started making the Rasengan and slamming it into some deformed trees. But now in an area he felt comfortable in he grinned as he pulled out a small rubber ball and held it in his right hand. It was late, but he was determined to pop the damn ball. 'Concentrate…' He thought as he began his rotations, pushing more chakra into it he kept his eyes shut to concentrate on the spiral mark on his palm. The ball then began to twitch with pressure as the rotation got faster and faster and more of them began to appear. 'I need more power!' He thought as more raw chakra was pushed into the rubber sphere. He could feel that it was getting close to popping, and a smile cracked his concentrated face, more chakra was pushed in and the ball began to give off a faint white glow. 'This is it!'

"Psssssssssss." Was the only sound Arashi could hear as once again the ball ripped open in the same spot.

"Kuso!" He yelled to himself as he threw the flat ball to the ground. 'Yondaime what am I doing wrong?'

He really wasn't expecting an answer; he had called out several times to the former Hokage and got nothing in return so when his smooth playful voice rang out in his head he jumped a bit from being startled by it. **"You remember what Ero-Sennin said a couple days ago…your rotation is uneven. You need to find which one is too big and either back off on it or beef up all the others. But now that you know what you have to do for the final stage and that it demands 100 percent of your rotation and power, I would recommend you get your others up to par with it."** Arashi then heard the blonde haired man laugh hard. **"I'm sure you can figure it out, after all you do have something that would make it all a lot easier to figure out which rotation it was."**

Yondaime then cut the connection and went back to whatever he had been so busy on recently, pretty much the entire time that he had been out on the journey to find Tsunade Yondaime had stopped his nightly teachings. The first time he had said that he was working on something important and that he would teach Arashi later, so Arashi didn't complain too much. But he missed the conversations he would have with him afterwards and before he woke up.

But it was after the Yondaime's little 'hint', that something snapped inside Arashi and he knew what he was talking about. Grabbing another ball he went into his routine of rotation and pushing in power, just until he felt like the pressure was just enough to pop it. Still with his eyes shut in concentration and his face bathed in the white glow of the chakra, he focused a small bit of chakra behind his shut eyes. "Byakugan." Now with his Hyuuga ability active he could see exactly what was going on without breaking his concentration by opening his eyes, looking down at the bright glow in his hand he could instantly tell that one of his orations were significantly larger than the rest. 'It's that one!' He thought as he identified the large rotation as his 52nd one, attempting to push the others to its level his hand suddenly flared up in pain. Grunting from the sudden stab at his nerves he pushed through it until…

"Pssssssssss…" The ball ripped once more, Arashi hadn't been quick enough to counter the larger rotation and get it to pop.

"Kuso!" Throwing the ball into a nearby bush, but then for some reason as he picked up another ball his mind raced back to the picture of his mother he had been shown not an hour earlier. "Kaa-san…" He said under his breath, determination flashed in his eyes and he did not shut his eyes and concentrate on the ball. Instead he stared intently at it as he felt the rotation growing uniformly and more powerful. He pushed more and more chakra into it, it then began to shake violently and glow bright white. Then in a snap he pushed his chakra to the maximum of its power. "Boom!!" The ball went as pieces flew everywhere and Arashi was pushed back and fell into the very bush he had thrown the last ball in, rubber shreds covering his jacket.

"I did it…" He said as he began to drift off to sleep, but looking at his hand he could see the three tailed spiral mark on it and now several smoking burns on his hand. "I…did it…Yondaime…" He then drifted off to sleep in a bushy bed while the stars twinkled overhead.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Why won't you wake up?" A woman in a light brown trench coat sobbed as she held onto Kakashi's hand tightly. She had been there almost every day she didn't have any work to do with Ibiki. Once she had heard the story about the day her lost Rin and who she was, Anko had a newfound love for the silver haired man. For him to struggle with that pain for so many years and not have it come to the surface was something that touched Anko. She wanted for him not to ever feel alone and unloved again; once he woke up she knew that he would still be haunted by the images that he apparently been shown by the traitorous Uchiha. She made a promise to herself that she would be there for him no matter what. "Please wake up…" She said in a low voice as she stroked his blue mask.

Elsewhere in the room was a certain pink haired girl sitting next to one of Kakashi's students. Anko had seen them here many times, the pink haired one had been there every day she had. But the Hyuuga seemed to come to check on the pin haired one from time to time and try to make her feel better; she would also occasionally give Anko a concerned look as she watched over Kakashi. "So you met Shino-kun's fiancé? What was she like?" Hinata asked, curious about the girl Shino seemed to be happy about spending his life with.

"Well she's like your typical Aburame, except she seems a bit more playful and has a personality. I think her and Shino-kun will be fine together." Sakura then let out a small laugh. "He was even nervous for us to meet her, and she sure got Kiba-kun riled up. Haha, I had to hit him through the window again before he could say anything too stupid!"

Hinata let out a small giggle at the thought of Kiba sailing through yet another window due to Sakura's fists. She was truly happy that she had become much better friends with Sakura and seemed to be helping her out some with feeling better over Sasuke's condition. But looking at the clock on the wall, Hinata realized that she had stayed out much longer than she had intended. "Gomen Sakura-chan, but I need to get home." With a small wave to Anko, she took the fast route and exited out of the window and made her way home over the rooftops of Konoha.

Landing in a crouch, Hinata was greeted warmly by the guards at the main gate. Once she walked into the house and saw the clock there she was surprised at how fast she had gotten there. 'Looks like the training is really paying off.' She said in her mind as she made her way outside to her favorite place in the compound.

Just like the day Arashi had come to tell her that her was leaving for a while, she was sitting on the bench in her mother's garden. Looking up she smiled as she watched the stars twinkle, watching the stars had always been one of Arashi's favorite things to do and Hinata had recently discovered why. It calmed her and helped her organize her thoughts; it also allowed her to gaze upon things she could never reach for. But mostly she enjoyed it because knowing it was one of Arashi's favorite thing, it brought her closer to him in her mind and it mad her think if he was looking at the same place she was, wherever he was. "You're thinking about him again aren't you?" A voice said behind her.

Startled, Hinata whipped around to see the smirking form of her little sister. "Oh, you startled me Hanabi-neechan." She relied in a nice tone while scooting over so that her sister could sit down with her.

"No need, I don't see why you come out here and just look at things when you could be training to get stronger." She replied in her normal cold voice. "It's why you're not strong enough to be the next Head of the Clan." She scoffed.

Hinata really didn't want to discuss things like that with Hanabi at the moment so she simply dismissed her. "You never answered my question Nee-chan. Were you thinking about him again?"

"How can I not…?" Hinata sighed more or less to herself; she knew Hanabi really didn't want to know. Rather she wanted to chide her about not training.

The next thing seemed odd to Hinata, her sister actually came and sat down next to her with what looked like a normal expression on her face. "What do you see in him?"

Hinata giggled at her sister, drawing a scowl from her serious sister. "What is it that makes you dislike him so much?"

Hanabi then leaned over to rest her elbows on her knees and her chin on her hands. "He's always makes me look like a fool, like he's trying to belittle me."

"Hanabi…he doesn't try to make fool out of you. He's trying to give you some humility, you can't go around thinking you're always better than everyone else. That's one of the reasons Neji-niisan lost to Naruto-kun." She then laughed at her sister a bit before calming down a bit. "So what did you come out here for?"

It was then that Hanabi remembered why exactly she had come in search of her sister. "Oh, Otou-san wanted to speak with you in the meeting hall immediately."

Getting up and making a dash for the main house Hinata waved goodbye to Hanabi, she didn't want to keep her father waiting. She had learned over the years that doing so was a very bad idea. She was speeding down the hallway when suddenly as she turned a corner she collided with a light tan something. "Itai!" The Hyuuga said as she rubbed her head. Looking up she saw Neji doing the same thing. "Neji-niisan? What are you doing here?"

"Oh, Hinata-sama. I was just getting back to the compound from something…" He said vaguely, not exactly wanting to get into where he had been or more correctly what he had been doing.

"Really?" She then saw something that alerted her to where he had been. "So why do you have some lipstick on your neck?" She thought it was impossible, but Neji paled even more once he heard her say that. Reaching up he veraciously rubbed his neck to erase any more marks. With a small laugh Hinata made her way to leave, but not before saying one last thing. "Say hello to TenTen for me next time."

Hiashi was growing impatient at his eldest daughter's absence and was about to send a Branch House member to fetch her when said daughter walked through the door and instantly looked very confused. It was the company of the entire Hyuuga Council sitting next to Hiashi that had her out of place. "Please sit down Hinata. We have a few things to discuss with you."

"H-Hai." She stuttered out, no matter how hard she tried the stutter would still be with her around her father. "What is it y-you and the c-council wish to discuss with m-me?"

"We have two things to tell you…" Hiashi said in a very serious voice.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Curious of what her father could possibly want with Hinata, Hanabi had made her way to the door of the meeting hall. But when she got there she must have been to late to hear anything, this is because the second he pressed her ear to the door all she heard was the sound of a body falling unconscious to the ground. "Oh Kami, she's fainted! I was afraid this would happen!" She could hear her father say to someone. "Quick we need to get her to her room. We can tell her about Hanabi later." The young Hyuuga heard, dashing away from fear of discovery she had only one thing on her mind.

'What did they tell her? And how do I relate to it??'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**What is this new business within the Hyuuga? Akatsuki is getting more dangerous by the day, what will they do if they find Orochimaru? Will Naruto manage to complete the Rasengan before his week is up? Will Tsunade-sama accept Orochimaru's offer? You'll just have to wait to find out!!**

**WOW! I had work and was very very busy all week so I couldn't write at all! But I sit down Sunday morning…and 6 hours later. BOOM! This whole chapter is written!!**

**1****st**** off I would like to say that I am very disappointed in the amount of reviews I got for the last chapter!!! It's my longest one to date and I got less than half of the reviews I have been averaging for the last 6 or 7 chapters!! For shame!! I didn't want to put the requirement back on… but you all have forced me.**

**So for the next chapter I have to get at least 10 reviews before I'll even post it! Also don't forget that you can vote for if Hina-chan goes with Arashi and Naruto during the time skip.**

**Also remember that if you review on every chapter and continue doing it…you will get the reward of naming one of the characters in the upcoming arc!!**

**Also I would like to promote my other story, Strength of a Raging Fire, please go to my profile and read it, tell me what you think and I might continue it!**

**SO REVIEW OR I'LL HIT YOU WITH A FUTON: RASENSHURIKEN!!!**


	25. Tsunade's Choices

**Review Reply:**

**SwordofMagus:** Thanks for all of the reviews lately, you and some others have really made me get back into writing instead of being addicted to a new video game!

**NarutoDaFox: **Yeah I did steal it HAHAHA!!!

**Unknown-nin345:** Thank you so much for pointing that out to me I went back and fixed it in every chapter she was in. Thanks again!

**Animeskid: **Yeah I always thought that Naruto was beat the hell up in that episode, I felt that with him being more powerful in this that he deserved to at least throw Tsunade for a loop.

**Chosha Kurenai:** You'll find out about all of your questions in this chapter. All except for Akatsuki getting their hands on Oro.

**Cloudfightback: **Congrats on winning the prize, you're the 3rd person to get it. Just remember to keep reviewing!

**Static44:** Yeah the last couple of chapters have come out rather fast, but I've been really busy while I was trying to write this one so it's taken some time to get around to.

**Royal Snaza:** Yeah Yondaime is quite mysterious, he had his reasons…hahaha.

**DeadlyDragon12:** I'm trying to get them out fast but I've been busy.

**Kaja'Rang:** Just you wait, Naruto is yet to shine. Just like in the Manga, he's still rowing and improving.

**Ryumikratos:** Well thank you for your compliments, adding some romance makes a story just a bit more realistic…as realistic as the Narutoverse can be! It's the one thing that I believe Kishimoto-sensei could have done to improve Naruto vastly.

**RasenganRendan01: **You're the only one who commented on the little Akatsuki scene I had! Yay!

**Raiton77: **Whoa, you reviewed a lot in the last couple of days!

**Uchiha-itachi-3434: **I've actually gotten the 'best fanfic I've ever read' thing several times before and I really don't get it. I don't think I'm that good, and my review numbers don't really show it as one of the greats. Like the ones with several thousand reviews are bomb, like Team 8.

**Konoha'syellowflash:** Well thanks for your vote.

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto, only Arashi!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It had bee several hours since Hinata had fainted from the news her father and the Hyuuga Council had presented to her. She was currently lying comfortably in her bed while under the watchful eye of her little sister. Hanabi had practically volunteered to look over her sister when she was told to by her father. Her normal complaints and all around unpleasant disposition in respect to chores and tasks needed around the complex were gone and she had simply nodded and scampered off to Hinata's room. Seeing this Hiashi grew slightly curious about the reason behind his youngest daughter's behavior. But at the moment Hanabi was looking intently at Hinata's sleeping form with deep thought engraved on her face.

'What happened in there? Nee-chan hasn't fainted in a while, and never this long. Whatever they told her has to be huge…what could it be?' She thought trying to deduce what was spoken of behind the doors of the meeting room. But before she could even come up with a single guess, she was interrupted by the sound of Hinata's door sliding open. Looking up she was greeted with the tan jacketed form of her cousin.

"How is she Hanabi-sama? Has she awoken yet?" Neji said as calm as ever as he took a seat across the bed from Hanabi.

Without even looking in his direction, Hanabi snapped back at the prodigy. "Since when have you cared about issues dealing with Nee-chan?"

Neji then had to fight the urge to snap back at the young girl sitting in front of him. In truth the only thing that stopped him was the feel of his head band covering the Caged Bird Seal, and the fact that Hanabi wouldn't hesitate to use it. All he could do at the moment was to sigh heavily. "My eyes were open to the pain and suffering that I've caused Hinata-sama by her team mate Uzumaki-san during my match with him. I've been trying to heal those wounds and form stronger bonds with her, in truth I wish to do the same with you Hanabi-sama. After all, we are family." He then silently stood up and with a bow he left Hanabi with her thoughts once more.

Hanabi was a little taken back by Neji's answer at first; she had expected it was an order from her father. But now that she thought about it, he and Neji had seemed to become much closer in the last month, almost lie they were family. But the thing that caught her attention the most was his comment on Naruto, she still couldn't get over the fact that e had lost to him, so her train of thought hadn't even speculated the after effects of such a lose.

With a frown she turned back to her thoughts as her gaze drifted back to Hinata's serene looking face. 'Now what could they have told her? Let's see, it has to be big so that could only be a couple things…but it involves me! So what could it possibly be?' She sat there for several minutes pondering over what news could have bee told to her sister. Then suddenly a switch seemed to flip and she got an idea as to what it is. "Did they name her official heir!?!" She basically shouted with a look of absolute fright on her face. Even she couldn't deny her sister's growth since she became a Genin. If she had seen it then surly her father could have, and he is the one that is supposed to name the heir. Hanabi had been pushing herself ragged to one day take the title for herself. It was true that normally the eldest was named heir, but in the Hyuuga the most powerful is. Hiashi had not proclaimed who was to be the Heir, but Hanabi had speculated that it was to be her based on her sister's constant failure to perform to her father's standards. But now she was at and above Hiashi's standards and him naming her heir was a reality in Hanabi's eyes, and a scary one. What would she do with her life; she had trained as long as she could remember to become Head of the Clan one day.

Hanabi could do little but hold her head in fear as her entire world seemed to be crumble around her, her own assumption on the news told to Hinata had affected her so greatly that she hardly noticed as Hinata shifted around in the bed. But Hanabi noticed the second time she shifter around, pulling herself out of her thoughts she looked intently at Hinata as her face scrunched up into one that looked like she was confused. Then with a flutter her eyes opened up to reveal the pale lavender eyes of a Hyuuga. Looking up she saw Hanabi and wondered what she going on. "Anou…Hanabi-chan…what happened, the last I remember I was talking with Otou-san and he…."

Hinata's eyes then went wide as she remembered exactly what her father had told her. "He what? What did he tell you?" Hanabi burst out, desperately wanting to know if her fears had been realized.

Hinata didn't move or even respond. But after a deep breath she let out a loud high pitched scream as she got up and bolted out of the room in a mission to find her father. Elsewhere in the Hyuuga compound, Hiashi hear a scream that could only belong to his eldest daughter. With a sigh he spoke up to Neji who had been doing some light studying beside him. "Uh oh, Neji you should probably leave the room. I have a feeling my daughter is about to burst in here in a second." With a nod Neji got up and quickly left, not wanting to displease his uncle.

Not three seconds after Neji left the room, did Hinata burst in looking very frantic and a little afraid. "MARRIED!?!?!" She yelled in the loudest voice she had ever used. But immediately after she realized she had just screamed at her father and visibly shrunk back.

With a scowl, Hiashi motioned for Hinata to sit down before him. She immediately obeyed and sat down with her head down in embarrassment for her rash action. "Now Hinata, I realize this is an important subject and also very sudden. But that does not constitute yelling at your father and the Head of the Clan no less." Then with a sigh he continued. "You may come in as well Hanabi, this concerns you as well."

Then a very embarrassed Hanabi crept into the room, her face flushed at being caught spying. "G-Gomen Otou-san, I did not mean to pry."

"Yes you did." He said bluntly before turning back to Hinata. "Now as I have told you before Hinata…you are to be married. But you fainted on us before we could tell you anything else…as you I suspect have guessed is that this is an arranged marriage."

Hinata gulped audibly, arranged marriages were commonplace within noble clans such as the Hyuuga. She was now dreading what hr father would say next, just when she had finally had her love returned from Arashi she had to have this happen. 'Kami-sama must really hate me…' "Anou…w-who am I b-betrothed to O-Otou-san."

Hiashi could see the look of fear in his daughter's eyes and could easily guess why. He then sighed deeply and then looked her straight in the eye in a way only a father could. "…Arashi Himura…" He said calmly, but he could help it when his lips curled up slightly into a smile.

Hinata was speechless; she was expecting it to be some Daimyo's grandson or someone, not the one her heart truly wished to be with. So any thoughts were racing through her head that she said something barely audible. "…How?"

She was then brought out of her trance by the sound of her father chuckling softly. With a smile he reached forward and rested his hand on her shoulder. "If you think that I haven't seen both you and Arashi's development towards each other than you really must think I'm stupid. I've known for quite some time how you both felt about one another. So in wanting my eldest daughter to be happy and so that the Council didn't attempt to marry you off politically later, I met with the late Sandaime Hokage and had it arranged at the beginning of the second exam of the Chunin Exams."

"B-but how c-could you have d-d-done that, you must have b-both Guardians agree and sign the m-m-marriage document." Hinata stammered out, her stutter back in full swing.

"Yes that is right…and I did get his Guardian's signature and agreement." He then rolled out a scroll that clearly had Hiashi's name signed at the bottom, along with Sandaime's. "You see, Arashi has had Sandaime-sama as his guardian since he was about six years old. Naruto too, they were taken in by Sandaime-sama after some incident apparently." He then smiled widely. "So everything is true…you are to be married to Arashi Himura when the time is right and you both wish too."

He was then found in a rather awkward position for Hiashi, he found himself on the floor wrapped in a large hug from a crying Hinata. "Thank you Otou-san!" She said between sniffles. Hiashi did the only thing that could come to mind, he patted her on the back and smiled.

This tender moment of father daughter bonding was cut short by the other person currently in the room. "Ehem…and what does this have to do with me?" Hanabi asked sharply.

Clearing his throat Hiashi sat back up as Hinata went back to where she had been sitting. "This matter concerns you because eventually Hinata will no longer be a Hyuuga, but a Himura. This means that she can not become heir…" Hanabi's eyes went wide at this realization. "Therefore, you have been named sole heir to the leadership of the clan."

After prying Hanabi off of him Hiashi bid them good day and returned to his business with Neji, leaving the two sisters by themselves. Both of their dreams had come true that day, for Hanabi to eventually become Head of the Clan, and for Hinata to marry Arashi. But while walking Hinata suddenly stopped as a thought entered her head. "How am I going to tell Arashi-kun!?!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

"Achoo!" A certain blonde Himura sneezed as he attempted to control his chakra flow within a balloon. After waking up in a bush he felt energized and ready to take a crack at mastering the Rasengan.

Back in town Tsunade was once again at a local bar with Shizune. She had been sitting there quietly as she drank her sake when she heard the familiar clacking sound of her white haired friend. "What are you doing here?" She asked without even looking up at the red vested man who was leaning over Shizune to look at the seated blonde.

"That's pretty cold Tsunade, don't say that." He then looked down to see Shizune looking at him pleadingly. "Shizune…Gomen, but could you leave us alone for a while." He then looked back at the brooding Slug summoner. "I want to have a drink with her." With a bow, Shizune left and began to make her way back to the hotel her and her master were staying at. "Eh! Old man, give me some sake! Oh, and some radish too!" He yelled out as he sat down.

'Please take care of her, Jiraiya-sama.' Shizune thought before she turned to leave for her room.

The two Sannin sat there in silence for a couple minutes as Jiraiya sipped on a glass of water before moving onto something stronger. "I didn't expect you to still have that necklace." Jiraiya said, breaking the quiet that had befallen the two. "I thought you would have already lost it gambling…After Nawaki…and the other." Tsunade then looked down at the sake in her hand with saddened eyes. "Does it bother you?"

"Does what?" She retorted, actually raising her gaze to look at the strong jaw line of the Gama-Sennin.

"About Naruto and Arashi."

"…" She stayed her tongue momentarily before responding. "Not really…"

"Then you must forget what it's like to be young…it's impossible to master that jutsu within one week. It took me two and a half years to do it and they've only been at it a month and a half. I wouldn't call that a bet…what's bothering you Tsunade?"

"There's nothing bothering me baka." She snapped back.

Jiraiya decided then that he was through with the small talk and needed to get to the point. 'Are you going to meet Orochimaru again?" Tsunade looked at her glass in shock that Jiraiya had figured out what it was that was on her mind. "The look on Shizune's face gave it away." He said almost as if her could read Tsunade's mind. "I don't know what he has come looking for…but don't hurry your decision. Also, one more piece of advice. I will tell you this…the past Hokage protected Konoha and its people. To keep things as they are, to protect the village and that very ideal, they gave their lives to live up to that ideal. It's not like you don't understand the past Hokage…" He then turned to look her directly in the eye. "And if you are going to betray Konoha…" He then took a look of utmost seriousness. "I'll be forced to kill you!"

Drawing her gaze away from the one face she had never expected Jiraiya to use at her she muttered to herself. "It doesn't matter to me anymore."

"You know everything yet you still say you don't care…you're just running away. You've really changed…there wasn't anyone else who care about the village as much as you did…even that day."

Tsunade suddenly interrupted him with a raised voice. "Stop you lecture right there! Why…why did you bring those kids with you?" She asked as their voices rang in her head, speaking of becoming Hokage.

"They're similar, aren't they…? Naruto's so much like Nawaki, he's about the same age as well."

"Its not just that…" Tsunade said under her breath. 'That dream…and that arrogant side as well…'

Elsewhere Naruto was on the ground and breathing heavily. The tree before him had several spiral shaped crater, but still nothing like what Jiraiya had shown him. "I-I can't do it, kuso! Definitely by tomorrow…" He said before falling asleep on the ground once more.

"Oh, my head…" Jiraiya proclaimed as he woke up the following day. "Damn that Tsunade, it's her fault I feel like this." He then looked over to see Naruto's trademark sleeping cap and still folded cloths alongside Arashi's cloths. 'Those guys…they stayed out all night again.' Getting up with a yawn and a stretch he made his way over to the window, opening it he gazed off into the skyline of the city. "What idiots…"

Off in another part of the city, Tsunade was slowly walking down the streets with a look of deep thought etched onto her face. Many things were running through her head and the voices accompanying those thoughts rang out in her head like chiming bells._ "You beloved brother and that man, I can revive them with my Kinjutsu. Don't you want to see them, Tsunade?"_ The eerie voice of her snaky former team mate said from within her mind. All the while these thoughts were running through her head, she had found her way to a gambling parlor and was monotonously throwing money away as her thoughts moved on to other memories. _"If I heal your arms, what are you going to do?"_ Her own voice rang out before it was accompanied by Orochimaru's. _"This time…I'll definitely destroy Konoha completely." "Don't listen to his sweet words Tsunade-sama!! Their dreams…Your dreams…! Have you forgotten your dreams?!"_Shizune yelled to her, Tsunade could see the desperation in her assistant's words and also feel how they cut into her. Next was the serious and deep voice of Jiraiya that chimed off inside her mind while she lost more and more money by the minute. _"I won't lie to you Tsunade. The village has chosen you to become Godaime Hokage."_

Images of those who had chased the dream of Hokage and fallen for it flashed over reality. Each one of them with the cursed necklace around their necks, then lastly she saw an image of Arashi and Naruto smiling brightly as they both held up the necklace before her and with the Hokage monument looming powerfully behind them. It was then that her vision on the gambling machine blurred out and morphed into a memory she hated even thinking about.

_Tsunade was standing before the doorway leading to the place where Nawaki had died. Jiraiya and Orochimaru were standing behind her, despite his warning Tsunade finally let go of Jiraiya and decided to take a look. Now with a deep blue jacket that she would always treasure covering her trembling body she inched forward until all she could see was the blood stained sheet that separated her from the horrifying image of her brother's mutilated body. Shuddering at the sight she gripped her body tight and pulled the jacket closer to her, enveloping herself in Jiraiya's unique, musky, yet soothing scent. A scent that would forever calm her and bring her back to the feeling of security that his arms had given her._

Without even noticing it she had moved from the ambling parlor to the place she had been a couple days earlier. Atop the entrance to the city, she sat there while a cool and calming breeze blew by her, blowing some random strands of her hair in front of her eyes. She then squeezed the crystal tat hung from around her neck as tears streaked down her face.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A hand wearing a pair of black fingerless gloves were currently stuffed inside the pockets of a pair of dark grey shorts as they moved back and forth as the person wearing them walked down the streets of Konoha. His sleeveless forest green jacket clung tightly to the tight white shirt underneath it that displayed the kanji for 'eat' on it and covered a developing six pack. His muscled arms tensed up every time he passed someone on the streets that would be looking him up and down. He then suddenly felt a tug at the end of his long white scarf that danced gracefully in the wind, looking back his spiral marked cheeks formed into a smile as he looked deep into the smiling face of the one he was happy to see. Pulling her forward he wrapped a strong arm around her waist as they began to walk together while getting several death stares from various girls that had been following the Akimichi. "Happy to see me?" Ino asked after seeing the wide smile that was across Chouji's face.

"You have no idea…I don't know how Arashi and Sasuke put up with this!" He said sort of under his breath, but damn Ino and her good sense of hearing.

"Put up with what?" She then looked around to see about fifteen random girls watching them intently while hiding behind telephone poles, corners, crates, and even people. "They couldn't be…" She hen saw Chouji sigh heavily and nod to no one in particular. What Ino did next completely surprised Chouji at first but then grinned at how 'Ino' it was. She grabbed him by the scarf and pulled him into a loving and passionate kiss that seemed to make the world around them melt away into bliss. After she broke the kiss, leaving a bewildered Chouji and several fan girls gaping at them in shock, she turned to them and took in a big breath. "SEE THAT! HE'S MINE AND ALWAYS WILL BE!! NOW SCRAM!!!" She screamed before returning back to the exact spot she had been in, wrapped up in one of Chouji's arms with a satisfied and slightly devious smile on her face.

"Wow…that was…" Ino looked up at him with a raised eyebrow, wondering what he could possibly say to describe it. "AWESOME!!!" He said as his face light up with a beaming smile that would make Ino weak at the knees no matter how many times she saw it. "You have no idea how annoying those girls have become since my abs started to show through this shirt!" He said as he raised his shirt up slightly to reveal a toned stomach, nothing like how he used to be before he started working his hardest to improve.

After stopping herself from going through with the odd desire to trace the outlines on Chouji's abs with her finger she started to think a bit more clearly. "So Chouji-kun, where were you going?"

Just now realizing what he was doing he explained himself. "Actually I was looking for you, so I guess I'm done with that part. Shikamaru and Asuma-sensei are playing a game of Shogi and Sensei asked me to go find you so he can talk to us and then he said something about training." Ino was sure glad she had all of her gear on her at the moment in Asuma was calling them for unscheduled training. Moving her hand so that it was now intertwined with Chouji's, they made their way to the other two's favorite Shogi spot.

"And…I win." Shikamaru said as he took Asuma's king with a smirk. "That makes 15 wins for me…and zero wins for you Sensei."

Asuma could only sigh at his utter defeat at the hands of his student. 'Why do I do this again? Oh, that's right…I thought I enjoyed playing Shoji until I learned that I would get my ass handed to me every time I played that lazy bum.' It was then that Chouji and Ino came up to them with their ever present smiles whenever they were near each other, Asuma was glad because now he could be spared from the gloating of the resident shadow user on his team. "Ah, Chouji, Ino, you made it."

"You wanted to see us Asuma-sensei?" Ino asked, perplexed as to why Asuma would call for them especially after their normal training time.

Asuma said nothing but motioned for the three of them to take a seat on a nearby bench, all three did so and could feel something nostalgic about the place. "Do you guys remember this place?" They all looked around, sure they had been there about a hundred times but they couldn't think of one particular moment that Asuma could be talking about so they shook their heads. "This was where we had our first meeting as Team 10…do you guys remember what we said there?"

'_I get these kids? This is going to be hell…' Asuma thought as he looked over his new students, one was currently stuffing his face with several bags of chips while stealing glances at another team mate. Anther one was half asleep and was simply gazing at the cuds at the moment and the last member looked like she didn't even want to be there. She was looking off down the road to the Academy with a longing look on her face. The Sarutobi then took a long drag off of his cigarette before he spoke up. "Well I guess its time we got to know each other. Tell me your names, what you like and dislike, and why you want to be Shinobi."_

"_Umm, why don't you tell us first Sensei." The chubby boy said as he polished off another bag of chips. _

"_Me? Okay…I'm Asuma Sarutobi. You can probably guess but I like cigarettes and I also like fighting." He said with a glint in his eye. "I don't like gossip or if people try to touch my beard…so try to and you'll be missing an arm." All three paled a bit at his threat. "As for why I wanted to become a shinobi…I always wanted to be like my dad, and protect this village and its people. Doing so eventually got me this…" He said as he pointed to the sash around his waist that had the Land o Fire emblem embroidered on it. "I eventually become one of the 12 Guardians of Fire. Now let's start with you blondie."_

"_Well my name is Ino Yamanaka, I like flowers and Sasuke-kun…and I hate Sakura!" She said with a disgusted face at the thought of her pink haired nemesis, Asuma could only sigh at the crap he would have to deal with from her. "I guess I wanted to be a Shinobi because everyone in my family does it…and all the cutest guys are Shinobi!" She giggled off, their bearded Sensei only wished she was joking._

"_You're next pineapple head."_

_The first thing Asuma heard was a groan, and it would forever be associated with Shikamaru to the smoking Jonin. "This is so troublesome…I'm Shikamaru Nara and I like watching the clouds. I dislike putting effort into things and pretty much anything that's too troublesome for me. "I want to be a Shinobi because it's the best thing you can do with yourself around here." He said short and to the point, all the while with his eyes still half opened and locked on the sky._

_Chouji could tell it was his turn so he popped a chip into his mouth and began to speak once it was eaten. "I'm Chouji Akimichi, I like food, my friends, and…" He said while his eyes darted over towards his blonde team mate. "I hate being made fun of about my weight and will destroy anyone who uses the 'F' word around me! I became a Shinobi to protect those I care about, become a better person, and to show people that my family should be fear and not ridiculed for our abilities."_

_Asuma then broke out into laughter. "Chouji, your family is already feared. I know I wouldn't want to go up against your father!"_

"I can't believe I said something like that!" Ino said as she clung to Chouji's rock hard arm, gaining a chuckle from everyone.

"You all have changed so much since back then and have grown into excellent Shinobi." Asuma said while lighting up another cigarette. "This takes me to the purpose I called you out here. None of you have as of yet progressed to Chunin, I know since the invasion no one was named. But if they had been named, only Shikamaru could have been a possibility out of you three. The next Chunin exams aren't that far away, only 5 months. I expect every one of you to make Chunin then, I know you are capable." He then got a look in his eye that sent a shiver down their spines. "Now…" Then in a swift and fluid movement, he suddenly had his trench blades in his hands and ready for combat. "…let's train!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"GAAAAH!!!" A voice yelled out from among several twisted trees with deep spiral marks all over them. The yell was soon accompanied by the sound of wood crumbling off a tree. "It's no use…kuso! I'm going to…!" Naruto said with the last of his energy before he passed out from chakra exhaustion again.

But he wasn't alone this time; standing behind a large boulder was Tsunade. All the voices she had heard earlier in the day, she was now hearing again as she watched Naruto sleep on the cold ground. With a sigh she turned to leave as the moon's light was shadowed by a dark cloud.

"He's done this every night you know." A voice said from behind her, starling her and causing her to jump around to face him.

Looking down she saw Arashi standing there with his jacket slung over his shoulder and just standing there in a tight deep green shirt and his regular black Shinobi pants that ended almost at his ankle where his black Shinobi sandals met with the end of his pants. "Oh, it's Arashi. You startled me."

"He's passed out every night since your bet…we've passed out every night. I just decide to check on him before I gave it one more shot."

"…Why…" She said under her breath, but Arashi heard it none the less. "Why go this far, why Hokage?"

"Because we push to be the best, we want to be Hokage so we can protect the ones we love and the village. Like Oji-san used to say, it's our Will of Fire that drives us." He said calmly as he walked over and laid his jacket over Naruto's sleeping form. He then turned and made his way back to where he had been training; stopping right behind Tsunade he spoke up. "I really hope you do accept…with Oji-san gone we need a strong Hokage, and Naruto and I just aren't strong enough to protect every one. We need you…Konoha needs you." With that he was gone and back to where he had been before, leaving Tsunade's mind churning over his words. As she made her way back to town she was sure of one thing…she was going to have another voice in her head soon.

Many miles away in an underground hideout a voice broke the silence of the hideout. "I wonder which one it will be. If he agrees to what we have proposed, Orochimaru-sama, your arms will be healed. We can then destroy Konoha and Tsunade-sama will be able to be with her loved ones again." Kabuto said from within a candle lit room filled with preserved organs and snakes. "But…if she says no…"

"In that case, we will have to get her to heal my arms by force." Orochimaru interjected with a sneer.

"I wonder if it will go that easily."

"You're here after all…" A sadistic smile then crept across the medical Nin's face. "There is no need to worry. I'm the one who knows her best, only that fool Jiraiya knows her better…and he's back in Konoha now. I know her well enough, especially her weakest points! She will definitely agree to the conditions…without a doubt."

"_Alright, in this third stage, you must remember all that you've learned. Use 100 percent of your power."_ Jiraiya's voice rang out in Naruto's head. Bringing his hands together before him he began to move them from side to side over the ball of spinning chakra that was forming in them. "HAAA!!" He yelled as the orb slammed into the tree, sending bark and dust everywhere. _"As with the balloon, make a mark, and imagine your chakra being focused in that spot."_ The pervert's voice said as Naruto stared at the spiral gouged into the tree trunk, he seemed to be getting better slowly. Every crater he made, the more violent and deeper it seemed, but it was still far from being mastered and the deadline for the bet was the next day.

'Over and over in my head, I know it! But still…I can't extract 100 percent of my power properly!' He thought as he closed his eyes in concentration. With a snap they opened and he began to form the rotation of chakra as he spun it in dozens of different directions with his fast moving right hand. The chakra grew and picked up speed until a decent wind was coming from off of it, making Naruto's cloths sway in the chakra made wind. Then just as he was about to charge the tree, he fell down to one knee. With a grunt Naruto tried to stand but couldn't, the words of Tsunade playing with his head.

"_Why teach him something he has no chance of mastering. He can't be serious about learning it. So that's why that kid is dreaming, saying he wants to be Hokage and that other nonsense."_ With a glare now on his face, Naruto yelled as he pushed himself to his feet and went at the tree in front of him.

Tsunade once again found herself in thought as she sat out on her balcony, bathed in moon light. "Tomorrow…eh?"

Of course not everyone was having such a bad time, at the moment a slightly drunk and satisfied Jiraiya left one of the more…mature shops in the town with a smile on his face. But after getting a block or so away from it his face shifter to a more serious one as he remembered his talk with Tsunade a couple days earlier. 'If she hesitated on answering about Orochimaru, there must be a reason…it bothers me to think why she made it one week.' Upon reaching his room he was yet again met with the sight on no Arashi or Naruto. 'And that they haven't come back here all week seems off to me…maybe I should have another word with Tsunade.' He thought as he turned around to make his way to the blonde's room.

"I…I don't have the time…" Naruto said to himself as he lay face down in the dirt before his word went foggy and his passed out again.

It was at that moment that Shizune had decided to check up on the boys for the first time, peeking her head from behind the boulder she gasped at the destruction that surrounded Naruto. The ground was ripped up in several places, trees had spiral craters all over them, and some even had been snapped in half from the amount of hits it had taken. He eyes then fell to his unconscious body. "Naruto-kun, are you alright?!" Then thinking that if Naruto was like this she picked the boy up and dashed off to find Arashi. Turning a corner she could only gasp once more as she found Arashi in a similar position but with hundreds of balloon shreds surrounding him. Shizune then groaned as she picked up both of the boys, having to resort to chakra enhancement to actually pick them up. 'What are they wearing to make them this heavy!?!' She thought before making her way back to town to get Tsunade's help.

"Knock, knock." Tsunade heard the knock at the door, so she pulled herself from her thoughts and made her way to the door. Upon opening it up she was greeted with the smiling face of Jiraiya. "What could you want?"

"The moon is out, you know? How about we go out for a drink?" He asked while sipping from an imaginary sake dish. No sooner ha she nodded that she found herself back in the same bar they had been in before. But once again silence had fallen over the two as their sake was given to them. "Tomorrow is the very day you made that bet with Naruto…one week ago." He said as he tossed a pair of die in his hand to break the silence. Tsunade didn't respond but took a long sip of her drink. "I wonder what has happened to those boys…"

She paused momentarily from her sake consumption, but just enough to let her mind mess with her some more. _"I really hope you do accept…with Oji-san gone we need a strong Hokage, and Naruto and I just aren't strong enough to protect every one. We need you…Konoha needs you."_ Arashi's voice said in her mind. "I wonder…" She replied back to Jiraiya after an inaudible sigh.

"Maybe I should order something." Jiraiya spouted off while Tsunade filled her dish once more. "I'll take some radish." He said to the bartender, he then closed his eyes and took a long sip of sake. But what he didn't see was Tsunade's intense stare she was giving him, watching every movement. She then quickly flipped out a small packet of something and poured the white powder into Jiraiya's sake pitcher. While he was still sipping away she picked up the sake and swirled it once before nudging Jiraiya to pour him some of it. "Oh, for me?" He said as he happily let her fill up his dish. Once more Tsunade watched him like a hawk, and just as he was about to drink it his order came up. "Oh! This sure looks delicious!" He said and then flicked his wrist back and swallowed the clear liquid that had gained Tsunade's gaze.

After he had drank it she decided to leave, her plan already in motion. But when she returned to her room she was met with a very nervous and tired looking Shizune standing outside their room. "Tsunade-sama!" Once they were in the room Shizune showed the unconscious boys to her master with a concerned look on her face. "Naruto-kun and Arashi-kun…"

"Naruto's in critical condition. His right hand has been badly burned by chakra, Arashi isn't in much better shape…but their lives aren't in danger. I would think at this rate, they won't wake up till the day after tomorrow." She then looked intently at Naruto's hand and scowled at herself. "It seems like what Jiraiya said is true, about that crazy bet I made. The two of us…what are we getting so worked up about? And what's making Arashi push himself that hard, I didn't make a bet with him…it seems so stupid." All the while she was saying this, Shizune's face was getting grimmer and grimmer.

Finally she couldn't take it, she had to speak up. "Tomorrow…Tomorrow, please don't go!" Tsunade's gaze at her shifted down and verified Shizune's fears. "Why?" She almost yelled. "Why aren't you saying anything to me?! Tsunade-sama, please speak up and answer me!" She then became very quiet as she narrowed her gaze on her master.  
If you're going to go…"

"What are you going to do?" Tsunade asked nonchalantly.

"Even if it costs me my life, I will stop you!"

It was then that Tsunade turned and glared fully at Shizune. "Shizune, who the hell do you think you are talking to?!" Before she could even react, Shizune saw Tsunade swiftly move past her. But this was also accompanied by a horridly sharp pain in her gut that made her fall to the ground unconscious. Tsunade was out of the room before she even hit the ground, leaving the three alone in the room.

The next morning the sun rose and shined brightly that beautiful day. "Eh, Old man its morning…time to go home." The bartender said as he saw Jiraiya's slumped over form still sitting where he had been the night before. With a sigh the man made his way over to Jiraiya and began shaking him to wake him up. "Hey, wake up!" He was then surprised when the white haired man simply fell off the stool and to the ground. "Hey! What happened to you?!"

Elsewhere, Orochimaru and Kabuto were making their way back to Tanzaku city to meet up with Tsunade. "If any disturbances were to arise, it would be most troublesome."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Tsunade's assistant could be a nuisance…" Kabuto then pulled out a kunai as his eyes glared at the thought of what he was about to do. With a pivot at the next tree, Kabuto shot off in the direction that held the hotels of the city.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Did you guys see Team 10 the other day? They looked like they were about to die!" Kiba spouted off before going off on one of his laughing stints with Akamaru.

"They have probably been given a new training regiment from Asuma-sensei.: Shino said calmly as he always does, pushing his glasses up a bit he sighed, actually sighed. "This probably means we will get a new one from Kurenai-sensei, considering their relationship…"

"Their what?" Kiba asked, completely oblivious to his Sensei's personal life.

"You're so dumb Kiba-kun." Sakura mouthed off as the three made their way to their meeting with Kurenai.

"No seriously, what are they brother and sister?" He asked while for some odd reason Akamaru chose that moment to make a mad dash off his head.

Kiba soon learned why Akamaru continuously did that when Sakura's fist slammed down on top of his head. "BAKA!!"

"Sakura-chan, please don't injure Kiba anymore. We don't know what Kurenai-sensei wants from us and we wouldn't want him hurt if we were to begin training later." Sakura frowned at her bug using team mate's obvious logic.

"Oh yeah…have any of you guys seen Hinata lately? She's been acting kind of strange." Sakura asked as she remembered when she had seen her the other day, there was something up and she couldn't put her finger on it. She had looked so incredibly happy, yet at the same time she look more nervous than Sakura had ever seen.

Almost as if he hadn't just been painfully beaten, Kiba popped up next to Sakura with a worried look on his face. "What?! What happened to Hinata!?"

"I don't know that's why I was asking you guys!" Sakura said as she rubbed her ear that had just been basically screamed in. "And why do you care so much?"

Kiba then blushed slightly and didn't really talk so Shino did for once. "He has had an infatuation with Hinata-san ever since the Academy. But as you have seen, Kiba usually has an infatuation with anyone of the opposite sex."

Sakura then burst into laughter, actually pointing at Kiba as she laughed. "You idiot, you like Hinata and our getting al up about it! What about Arashi? He'll kick you ass so fast you won't know what hit you!"

"S-Shut up! Just you watch, she'll be mine one day!"

"You baka, you actually think that Hinata would ever not be with Arashi!? Plus don't you think your sounding a little possessive there? I mean geeze Kiba-kun, of all the girls you want the one who have the least likely chance of breaking up with her boyfriend, and the one with the boyfriend who would most definitely kick you ass without a moment hesitation if you did anything to her." She said while still laughing, causing Kiba's head to droop slightly.

"She is right Kiba, Arashi would beat you within an inch of your life if you ever tried anything." Shino added, his collar was hiding it but he was enjoying this conversation.

"You guys don't have to come down on me so hard. A guy can dream right?"

"Yeah, but we all know you Kiba-kun and we now that if you don't know full well something's consequences you'll try to do it anyway. Plus you and Hinata just would never ever happen. It's like me and Naruto, it would never EVER happen! You would probably have an easier tie getting Ino to go out with you than Hinata." Even Shino let out a muffled laugh at that. Both of the others simply stopped dead in their tracks and stared at the Aburame.

"Y-You just laughed!" Kiba yelled while pointing an accusing finger at the boy.

"Of course, it was a good joke. It's funny because there is also no way that anyone could ever hope to pry Ino away from Chouji so saying that you would have an easier time with her is quite an ironic and funny joke." It was at that moment that they got their first taste of Shino's odd love of irony.

After getting over the disturbing fact that Shino can actually laugh, they finally arrived at the training grounds to find that it wasn't just Kurenai there. "Good morning guys, how are you all…what's wrong? Kiba, you and Sakura look like you're traumatized or something." She asked while the man next to her smirked.

"I-It's nothing Kurenai-sensei." Kiba stammered out as he looked oddly at the extra person there with them.

"Anou…what is he…" Sakura began before Kurenai cut her off.

"He is here for your training today; you all lack what he can teach you so today you will be train under him while I train his students in some genjutsu. No you can…" She said to the man but was cut off herself by him.

"YOSH!! Today I'll be teaching you all to unleash your springtime of YOUTH through the perfection of your Taijutsu!" Gai yelled out as the three present members of Team 8 paled as they remembered the horrifying sight of his and Lee training that they had witnessed before the Chunin Exam finals. "Now let's start off with five laps around Konoha!!!" He yelled as he began to jog down the road waving them on. The three groaned as they ran to catch up, they all knew they weren't going to be able to move the next day.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hey, hey you!" A voice said that woke Shizune up. Looking up she saw both Arashi and Naruto leaning over her with questioning looks on their faces.

She then leapt up when she remembered what had transpired before she was knocked out. "Hurry! What time is it now? No…what day is it today?!"

"It's Monday…but…" Arashi responded to her, gaining an odd look from her as she looked at the boys. "What's going on?"

"Are you two alright? You should have been asleep for a good two days!"

It was Naruto that spoke up to answer her question. "For as long as I can remember, no mater how bad my injuries, if I sleep for a night I'll fully recover."

'I see…it must be because of the Kyuubi…' He gaze then shifted to Arashi who for some reason looked nervous. 'Then how did Arashi-kun recover so fast?'

"Anyways, that really doesn't matter now. But where is tat damn Baa-chan! Today is the ay we made the bet for."

"Oh, and what about the jutsu?" Shizune asked as Arashi helped her to her feet.

"Well it's not complete yet, BUT! When the time comes, I'll figure something out."

This caused Shizune to let out a small giggle that of which soon gave way to an immense pain in her side. 'That's right! I shouldn't be sitting here doing nothing!' She ten made a dash for the window. "Naruto-kun, Arashi-kun please stay here!" She then was about to jump out of the window, but was suddenly stopped by a whizzing kunai that zipped about an inch in front of her face.

"What's going on?" Arashi said as he opened the window more to look out and see who had thrown the kunai. He was soon met with a heavily breathing and sweaty Jiraiya who was leaning weakly against the wall. "Ero-Sennin?!?"

"Matte, Shizune!" After a bit they had him sitting down and Shizune was giving him a couple glasses of water. "That bitch Tsunade…she drugged my sake…Now I can't mold my chakra properly, and also my body is partially paralyzed. I can't even throw a kunai properly…"

'What would he have done if it had hit me?' Shizune asked herself as she looked at the kunai still stuck to the gutter of the building.

Arashi had a feeling this was going to happen, so he just leaned back and waited for Naruto to go off at their Sensei. "That's so LAME! Even though you keep on bragging about how great a ninja you are, you lost to some ero-ero attack you baka ero Ero-Sennin!!"

"SHUT UP! Even if she has changed, she is still a medical specialist. To paralyze a ninja with medicine like this can only be done by someone like her. However, in this state, even someone like me gets tired…"

Elsewhere Tsunade was currently standing with her back to the wall of the same ally where she and Orochimaru and met a week prior. She as lost in thought once more as she gazed upon the huge whole in the other wall that she had made.

Water was now quenching Jiraiya's thirst as well as making him feel a bit better. "Jiraiya-sama, how do you feel?"

"Much better than before. But still I'm only perhaps one third of my normal self." He replied as he set the glass down.

'Who would have thought that Jiraiya-sama would be here…' Kabuto thought from around a corner where he had hid upon seeing the Sannin. 'What a troublesome thing…I should back off for now.' He then looked at the others there. 'Even you're here Naruto-kun…and you Himura!' He thought as he rubbed his jaw, with that he left a quietly as he could. But still in his state, the Sannin picked up on it and could tell something was up.

"Shizune…what kind of conversation did you have with Orochimaru? Now is the time for you to speak up." He said with a very serious look upon his face.

The black haired woman then hung her head in shame, her bang covering her face from sight. "I wanted to believe in Tsunade-sama. That's why…I couldn't talk about it." She then clutched her torso where she had been hit. "But…" She then stood up with a serious look. "There is no time! Please follow me, I will explain on the way!" With that the four Shinobi sped off through the forest to where Shizune was leading them.

Hearing footsteps behind her, Tsunade turned to see the pale face of her former team mate half hidden behind his stringy black hair. "What is your answer?"

"What!? To that kind of thing, the answer has to be no!" Arashi said as they sped through the tree tops.

'This could be seriously bad…' Thought the Sannin with a saddened look upon his face. 'She's probably living on only by remembering those two.' Looking up he could already see the ruins of the castle so they were close. 'The worst-case scenario would be that Tsunade would have to be killed…and I just don't think I could do that…'

Tsunade simply stood there, no emotion shown on her face as she looked at Orochimaru. "I will heal your arms…however; do not lay a single finger on Konoha!"

"Kuku…sure why not."

Tsunade could only stand there, the thoughts of her times with Nawaki and Dan racing through her mind. Now she could be with them and Konoha would be safe. A gust of wind carrying four leaves then blew by her, almost pushing her over. "Now…" The snake said, the two Sannin then began to slowly make their way towards one another.

"Once his arms are healed, he'll attack Konoha!" Shizune said to Jiraiya as they neared the castle ruins by the second.

"He must be stopped now! Or else the situation will become even more dangerous."

They weren't the only people making their way to where Orochimaru and Tsunade were, Kabuto stopped only momentarily as he glared at the thought of having to run from Jiraiya and the others when he had really been looking forward to staining his hands red.

Orochimaru was now standing before Tsunade with a wicked smile on his face; slowly he painfully moved his arms out for Tsunade to heal. With a solemn look, Tsunade's hands began to glow blue and the healing chakra began to form between them. Orochimaru twitched as he inched his hands forward to meet up with the glowing blue medicine. Suddenly they both leapt back a mere second before a kunai jetted forward and into where their hands would have been.

Above them sat the silver haired Oto Nin, he was crouched down while atop the alley wall. Both Sannin were glaring intensely at him, and then quickly he jumped off and went into several back flips before coming to a halt behind Orochimaru with another kunai drawn and ready.

"What is the meaning of this?" Orochimaru said coldly. "Have you come here to betray me?" He eyes then widened as he looked at who he was talking to. "Tsunade!!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Okay I have been really busy and have not been able to write so that's why this is so late so sorry about that. I didn't particularly think I did well on this chapter on certain parts. I thought that most of the chapter was good, but please forgive the last section of it**

**(Edit) Okay everyone I somehow managed to keep my computer, so the next chapter will be out much sooner than previously stated. But as always it depends on the amount of reviews I get!**

**Anyway, please review. I'll still be able to check those and get them from other computers, just not write. I know it sucks, so I'm still having the review rule on. I need at least 10 reviews.**

**Also once I get my computer back I'll probably redo this chapter so look for it to change after the 15****th**** or so!**

**Also everyone check out my new profile icon, it's of my favorite pairing! I love the pic on there!!**

**Thanks for reading and please review or I'll have Tsunade bash you as hard as she can!**


	26. The Battle Begins!

**Review Reply:**

**Chosha Kurenai:** haha, yeah that would be funny. I'm trying to get Yondaime to show up some more but the storyline takes precedence right now, he'll show up more in the next arc.

**Turok1:** Yes he is.

**Cloudfightback:** Yeah, I felt that Arashi needed to be serious with her for a bit and finally drive home her want to protect Konoha. It can't be just Naruto who does it

**Grapfruit.ninja: **It was so totally an Ino move; I laughed while I wrote it.

**Static44: **Nope, no Kabuto Kekkei Genkai. It's just an ability so Arashi can't take it, too bad that would make things interesting…especially with some of my future plans (Laughs maniacally)

**Raiton77:** Yeah that is a big question, how will she do it?

**Animeskid:** I didn't try to get him to come off Yondyish there; it's just how Arashi is. He's similar but that was all him.

**De-raz-bomber:** As long as people review I will continue dead reader!

**Uchiha-itachi-3434:** I thought that the Shino part was quite funny, and he seems to me like a person who lives by logic so Irony is perfect for his sense of humor.

**The Elven-Spear:** I have no idea what you're talking about!

**Royal Snaza: **Yeah and thanks for all the support…you really need to get online some more!! I've been wondering where you've gone!!

**Ryumikratos: **Yes there is fighting, now that you've reviewed them all I'm going to need your character name, try to make it a cool sounding one. Just either put it in the review for this chapter or PM me.

**SwordofMagus:** That wasn't a flashback with Team 10 it's what happened, and the Team 8 training comes into play in this chapter, Muahahahaha!!!

**RasenganRendan01:** I'm going to need your character name soon as well.

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto, only Arashi!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The wind blew gently past the female Sannin as she stared down the two before her. Her glare was directed specifically at the spectacled one at the moment, her chance ruined. The Sannin's gaze was then met with the pale face of Orochimaru who just scowled at her. "Why have you given me such an answer Tsunade?" His eyes then snapped wide in rage. "How dare you try to kill me!" Tsunade's eyes narrowed at her former team mate for being found out. "At least I can trust the loyalty of Kabuto. Luckily he showed up in time to see the killing intent hidden with in your so called healing hands!"

"Of course, we both have trained in the same medical jutsu. It was easy to sense the approaching attack."

Orochimaru sighed heavily before he turned his attention back to Tsunade. "Oh Tsunade…I was serious when I spoke of reviving them…and I even promised not to crush Konoha. You had everything within your grasp…and let it slip through your fingers!"

Tsunade could only look down at the ground sadly due to the truth of Orochimaru's words as the gentle wind blew her bangs to and fro before her face. Raising her head her gaze flashed back to an intense glare momentarily before retracting back to the blank, depressed, and lonely look that seemed to show the true workings of her heart. "Orochimaru…you were lying about not destroying Konoha. You're a fool if you thought I would believe you, I know you." Her shoulders then began to quiver as she felt the inevitable tears welling up in her eyes. "I already knew…I…"

"Hm…" Orochimaru smirked as he could feel the pain rolling off his former team mate in waves, he reviled in it, he delighted in it. It made things all the better for his enjoyment considering what he planned to do soon.

"I..I wanted to see both of them, just one last time. Just one last time…I wanted to see them. Just one last time…I wanted to touch them. To see their faces…their smiles…but. I realized the moment I felt that feeling creep under my skin…to be able to se Nawaki and Dan again…I realized…" A gust of wind blew by her, almost knocking her down in her emotional state. Opening her pained eyes she could see four perfect leaves dancing in the wind before her eyes, taunting her even now. "I'm an utter fool!" She said loudly as she thrashed her head to the side, flinging off her accumulating tears that now fell to the ground, and as they trickled down her face they dripped off her chin and onto the last thing that connected her to the ones she loved. "The two of them…just remembering their faces…I was blinded by it!" Images of the two deceased Shinobi flashed before her eyes, still looking as happy as she had ever seen them. "I loved them; I really and truly loved them. That's why…" She then opened her arms and wrapped them around herself, receieving the only hug she had gotten in years. "…I wanted to see them and hug them!" Still trembling she pulled her arms back to her side as new images materialized before her eyes, ones of the two new people dedicated to achieving Hokage.

"But…I couldn't…not after those two showed up." She said quietly as the memories of what she had seen recently had changed her. The memory of Naruto panting heavily while on the verge of chakra exhaustion, but still refusing to stop, refusing to lose the bet. The memory of Arashi laying amid a pile of shredded balloons while he slept, and the terrible chakra burns on his right hand that Tsunade had felt so bad about that she had healed him right on the spot, breaking her 10 year probation on medical jutsu.

"Because of those kids, I remembered their dreams. After I had tried so hard to forget them…" _"This village is Grandfather's treasure! And I'll protect it with my life because I'm Shodai Hokage's grandson!"_ Nawaki's voice said as it sang out in her head. _"I love both the village and its people. That's why I want to protect it." _Dan said in his calm voice. _"I will become like grandfather and receive the Hokage name!" _ Nawaki called out once more before newer voices called out to Tsunade's heart. _"__Unlike you…unlike you, we really want to become Hokage!" _Naruto said with determination in his voice and the same look in his eyes as Nawaki and Dan when they proclaimed their dreams of Hokage. _"My sister's death…That's the reason I have kept on going. That's why I will become Hokage. To protect everyone's happiness."_ A large tear splashed off of the crystal around her neck before the voice of the fourth one to haunt her heart spoke up with a powerful message_. "Because we push to be the best, we want to be Hokage so we can protect the ones we love and the village. Like Oji-san used to say, it's our Will of Fire that drives us_…_I really hope you do accept…with Oji-san gone we need a strong Hokage, and Naruto and I just aren't strong enough to protect every one. We need you…Konoha needs you."_

Next, the Sannin saw an image of all four of them standing side by side before the Hokage monument with the same look on their faces and in their eyes. _"Because being Hokage is my dream!"_ They all said in unison.

"Those two, who risked their lives to chase after their dreams…the possibility of making their dream come true disappeared right before my eyes." Orochimaru just stood there smirking, he loved the pain she was in, plans were already churning in his sick mind of when to spring the final truth on her. She then locked eyes with him, still with the blank stare she had been wearing for the majority of their meeting. "You once said that all things that have form will fade…" Her world then went black as the only thing she could feel was the sound of a single tear splashing off of her necklace. From the rippling water of her innumerable tears shed for them, the forms of Nawaki and Dan appeared as the only thing in her mind. "But…this memory is the one thing that will not."

Once more a strong gust of wind blew by the two Sannin. "A negotiations breakdown? Not much of a choice, I suppose." Orochimaru said as he narrowed his eyes at the woman before him. "Looks like we will have to force you to do me this favor."

Rubbing the tears from her face, Tsunade almost instantly composed herself and was once again breathing calmly. With a snap of her eyelids, he whole demeanor had changed, she was no longer an emotional wreck but instead a dangerous warrior with one goal in her mind…kill Orochimaru. In a blink of an eye she charged at the two before her and leapt high in the air with a leg extended high above her. At the last second Kabuto and his master managed to jump back and avoided the massive heel drop that managed to make a gigantic crater that was as wide as the alleyway and about 10 feet deep. From their new perch atop the walls at the side, they looked at the destruction at hand and were met with a glare of killing intent from the powerful woman standing at the bottom of the newly created crater. "Orochimaru-teme!" She shouted up at him.

"That's right, come to think of it I've never fought against you before!" Meanwhile the wind had picked up and was blowing debris from the destroyed alley away from them. With a serious look in her eyes Tsunade removed her jacket and let it go into the wind, leaving her with just her grey sleeveless top and blue sash the same color as her pants.

"It's a pity!" He said as she bolted for their new position with hate in her eyes.

"How can you say that…" Kabuto said as he tensed up for the incoming attack. "I'm the one stuck fighting her!"

She kicked up dust as she sped towards the stone wall where the two Oto Nin were perched. "You useless bastards! I'll kill you both where you stand!!" With a strong punch, she effectively shattered the wall into a thousand pieces. Once again Orochimaru and Kabuto and jumped backwards at the last second and now were on a large tree branch that luckily was behind the wall.

"It's just like it's always been, with her insane strength…" He said as he was crouched down and the branch before he turned to look at Kabuto. "One hit and it's the end of the story."

"I can tell that just by looking." He replied as he looked down at Tsunade standing amongst the smoking ruble. "It looks like fighting around the castle is going to be a bit complicated."

"Shall we relocate?"

"I think that would be in our best interest…there is also something else…" Orochimaru raised an eyebrow to his comment while Tsunade sighed below them. "There was somewhat of a troublesome person with Tsunade's subordinate." Tsunade then shot out at them and in an instant she was at their level with her leg sights on their heads. "Who knows when he will show up."

"Die!!" She yelled as she only missed Orochimaru's face my inches, with a quick rotation she spun around and brought her heel down on the tree, decimating it in a cloud of splinters.

The two she was aiming at leapt back in time yet again and dashed back hoping to lure Tsunade to more open ground. "This troublesome person…who is it?" Orochimaru asked.

"He's like you and Tsunade-sama…a Sannin."

'Kukukuku…Jiraiya' Orochimaru thought as he and Kabuto jumped away leaving Tsunade standing beside a newly made hole in another wall. Picking up a stone she crushed it into dust with a glare on her face.

'You won't get away!'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Gah! That was hell!" Kiba yelled to Akamaru as he trudged along with his team while on wobbling legs. He had never thought that training could be that…terrifying. He had never done so much work in his entire life and wasn't planning on doing it again, training to him was playing with Akamaru and getting him to pee on random things. He felt like jelly and looked like it too, wobbling to and fro dramatically.

Looking back he saw the stoic form of Shino, who didn't look phased by the intense workout they had just received. But if you looked closely you could tell that he was walking significantly slower and taking much smaller steps. But Sakura was definitely the worst out of the three, being the least physical out of the team didn't help her at all in 'Maito Gai's School of Youth' as he had lovingly called his training. The pink haired girl looked like she was about to keel over any second and simply pass out on the ground. "I now what you mean! No wonder Lee-kun is so strong!" She replied to Kiba's initial answer. Then with a pained laugh she looked at Shino. "It looks like even you were affected by his training Shino-kun."

"It was a strenuous day of training to say the least…I'll see you both tomorrow. I'm meeting Otome for dinner later." With that the bug user vanished in a cloud of bugs.

After a while Sakura and Kiba found themselves still a while away from Konoha, Gai had finished their training far away from where they usually did so it was taking them much longer to return home than expected. It had been a beautiful day, possibly the only thing that kept Sakura from going crazy and just giving up. The birds had been chirping and she had seen numerous animals in the surrounding forest as they had trained. But now, she didn't hear anything, and the only animal she saw was Kiba. She was about to say something to him when Akamaru had apparently figured the same thing out and yipped something to his scruffy master. A serious look then passed over his face, a look that Sakura felt was and odd combination with his face, it was more accustomed to Sasuke's. "You're right Akamaru, it's a little too quiet around here…"

Taking a whiff of the air Kiba knew something was wrong, he could smell no animals anywhere near them. But he was getting a faint scent of something human mixed with something odd. He turned to Sakura and nodded to her, confirming her suspicions. It was at that time that the faint sound of metal clanking against metal was heard. Whipping around the two Genin were faced with a man in a large hooded grey cloak leaning nonchalantly against a tree behind them and on the opposite side of the path they were on.

There was something off about this man and the two had never seen him before in their lives. The only thing visible to the two was the shine of two yellow eyes coming from within the shadow of the hood. "You two wouldn't be lost…now would you?" His raspy voice said from within the darkness of his cloak, sending a chill up Kiba's spine.

"No we're not…now who the hell are you?!" Sakura shouted at the man, apparently not getting the same feeling Kiba was, all he wanted to do at the moment was run like hell. Which in his present state wasn't very fast or far at all, so he figured sticking with Sakura might be a good idea at the moment.

"Me? Kukukuku…oh…I'm nobody important…just a passer by." He said almost sarcastically, but with an odd glint in his eye that had Kiba's spine freaking out. "But I do have a question for you two…"

"Which is?" The oblivious pink haired girl asked in an annoyed tone and her arms crossed.

"I wanted to know everything you now about Arashi Himura…" The man said as a wide sadistic smile crossed over his face, his teeth reflecting the light of the forest to become illuminated from beneath the hood.

Kiba couldn't move, he didn't know if it was fear, curiosity, or the training. But all he knew was that he should try to answer the man's questions. He was about to respond to him when once again Sakura spoke up instead. "What do you want to know?"

"First…is it true that he has unlocked the Kekkei Genkai of the Himura?"

'The what??' Kiba thought with a puzzled look on his face.

"Yes, he has." Sakura replied flatly, she hadn't liked this guy to begin with. But now he was starting to sound like someone she shouldn't be talking with, someone foreign.

'Good, actual confirmation…Master will be pleased…very pleased indeed. Now to dig deeper…before I break the rule and slaughter these brats!' 'You wouldn't happen to know what his most powerful jutsu is and any of his weaknesses?"

Sakura snapped at that, raising a fist at the man she began to yell. "That's enough! Who the hell are you!?!" She then pulled out a kunai, ready to attack to the best of her current abilities. This man wasn't from Konoha and wanted something to do with Arashi, something she couldn't quite figure out.

But before she could rush at the man he broke out into a hysterical yet sinister laugh. Suddenly he stopped and flung his arms up, out of the sleeves shot two large and thick chains that almost instantly wrapped themselves around the two Genin and pinned them to a tree that stood behind them. As soon as he had seen the chains Kiba knew what the sound was he heard earlier and why the smell of metal was all around them. Looking up at the man he actually saw what he looked like. The motion of throwing out the chains had thrown his hood back, leaving his head exposed to the two. He had limp stringy black hair that fell to his shoulders, a defined jaw, a strong chin, and a tanned, chiseled face. But there were two things that caught Kiba's attention the most about his face, one was the long vertical scar that ran from the top right side of his forehead and down through his right eye, over his lips and down to the side of his jaw line. The second was the about three inch thick metal collar that hung tightly on his muscled neck, it had two rather large chain links hanging from the front of it, and a small insignia etched into the left side. Unfortunately Kiba couldn't make out the symbol from where he was. "WHO the HELL ARE YOU!?!?" Sakura screamed once more as she too took in his intimidating features

The man smirked even wider at her, his smile looking more deranged than an actual smirk. "The name's Zankoji Toushura…the last person you'll ever see if you don't tell me the Himura's weakness! I don't CARE if Master said no killing while on my mission!! Now talk! Or I'll tear your flesh off your bones inch by inch with my chains!" He then broke out into his hysteric laughter as the chains began to tighten around the two, making them feel their skin begin to catch on the links.

Sakura just glared at the man, she was a Shinobi damn it and there was no way she would betray a fellow Konoha Shinobi. Looking into his eyes she could see the desire to kill, the obsession with blood, the love of mutilation, and it scared her. Not since her tangle with Orochimaru in the Forest of Death had she felt killing intent that strong and lustful. But she wouldn't crack, she wouldn't tell him the one thing she knew was Arashi's weakness. "Hinata-chan! That's it, it's her!!" Kiba screamed in a horribly pained and frightened voice.

"Hinata-chan…who's that?" The chain wielder asked, in a dementedly interested voice. But just as he was about to torture them for the answer he felt someone closing in on them. With a snap of his wrist the chains released the two and wrapped themselves back into their original position around Zankoji's arms. "You two got lucky…just pray you don't ever hear the name Zankoji Toushura ever again….because if you do it'll be the last thing you ever hear!" With that he disappeared into a cloud of smoke and was gone.

It was at that moment that Gai burst through the trees with a smile on his face and three green training suits in his hands. "Hey you two I…" He then saw the state they were both in, as well as Akamaru who was out cold against a nearby bush. Looking at them, they had chain imprints all over them from getting squeezed by them, also Sakura was glaring hard at Kiba.

Kiba could only look down in shame, summoning the courage needed he raised his head and looked into Sakura's enraged eyes. "Traitor." She said coldly as she stormed past a confused Gai and back to the village, deep in thought. 'Why did he have that engraved on his collar thing? It was like Asuma-sensei's sash…but not from the Land of Fire…'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Wh-what happened here?!" Naruto asked as he looked down at the destruction that was in place of the alley he had been in about a week ago.

Jiraiya and Shizune looked back and forth, surveying the damage and surmising the cause of it. "Oh my…what a mess that woman had made." The Sannin said while shaking his head.

But out of the four, Shizune was the most concentrated on the ruble. 'Does this mean…Tsunade-sama refused?'

With a grumble Arashi stepped forward into the crater and looked around, seeing the path of destruction seemed to lead out of the city he sighed. "Now where did Tsunade-baachan get off to?" Walking past the crumbled wall he felt something softer than rock beneath his feel. Looking down he saw the green jacket of Tsunade sitting under his feet.

"Ton-ton, which way?" Shizune asked as the pig sniffed the jacket and immediately picked up a scent. Shizune then reached down and carefully folded the jacket up and motioned for the others to follow the pig.

Arashi just had a dumbfounded look etched into his face at seeing a pig used for tracking. 'I could have summoned Ragna…at least it wouldn't have looked as ridiculous as using a PIG for tracking!!' After a second call the Himura sped off with the others to catch up with Tsunade and aid her in the apparent fight she was in.

Elsewhere several rocky craters litter the grassy landscape just outside the city. "BOOOOM!!!" Was all that was heard as a plume of dust and debris erupted from where Tsunade now stood, fist clenched and flat against the bottom of the new crater. Kabuto was safely perched atop a nearby boulder and was under the dangerous glare of the Slug summoner. "It looks like you're running out of breath, Tsunade." Orochimaru said as she breathed heavily while still at the bottom of the newest crater.

With a sigh, Kabuto reached back and put his hand inside his weapons pack, rummaging around for something. "Taijutsu was never my specialty…" Pulling his hand forward he placed a small black pill on his tongue and then bit down on it.

'A soldier pill?' After ingesting the pill, Kabuto let out a long sigh before speeding through many hand signs, his hands looking more like a blur than the signs he was making. 'Those seals…!' Tsunade thought as she watched while his palms began to glow blue. 'This brat…he's using medical ninjutsu.' Suddenly the rock he was perched atop blew up and left nothing by it. Jumping up, Tsunade barely missed his glowing hands as they shot out of the ground underneath her and went for her legs. While in midair she thrust her fist downward, slamming it into the ground. Unfortunately Kabuto had zipped away just before the attack had landed. With a pivot she shot out at the dodging boy with a fast drop kick, shattering trough a rock as Kabuto ducked under it.

Still shooting through the air, Tsunade rebounded off of a rock behind the one she had just shattered. Sailing through the air upside down she had her head tilted back so as to loc onto Kabuto's position as he stood up. In a flash he was gone from the minimal protection a boulder could give someone who was fighting Tsunade. Twisting so that she flipped over to land upright on the rock she was surprised to see Kabuto appear before her as she touched down on the rock.

But as she landed he simply patted her right arm and the back of her right leg. The second she felt that she thrashed out and connected a blow to Kabuto's chest, sending him skidding back a couple feet with a smirk on his face. The Sannin then attempted to stand, but found her muscles has been torn and cut. 'My muscles!' She thought as she gripped her right arm.

"I've hit your biceps and hamstrings…now you won't be able to use that insane strength of yours."

"Chakra scalpels…why aren't you going after my arteries?" She spat out with a glare at the medical Nin.

"That's true; I could have severed your arteries or veins. But doing so during battle is difficult, seeing as I would have needed a longer and sharper blade to do so. As of right now I can't make anything long enough to reach that deep into your muscles and arteries." He then rushed forward to the damaged blonde, palms ready for muscle slicing. "But if I could hit your neck…it could get messy!" Tsunade was set for a while, dodging his blows left and right, she even managed to connect with a leg sweep. But the crafty Oto Nin recovered midair and flipped forward to land a glowing strike directly to her chest.

Tsunade then fell down to her knees in a stint of violent coughing, leaving Kabuto to stand menacingly over her with a wide smirk on his face. 'Kuso…my diaphragm…I can't breath right…need to focus chakra on my lungs!' She then looked up at the person before her, the sun reflecting off his glasses. 'This punk…he's not a normal ninja…his sense for jutsu and movement is better than mine!

"I can't let you die just yet." His hands then lost their blue glow as he smugly pushed up his glasses. "I won't be going after your neck, but at least you can't move for now…" Before he could say anything else she head the sound of someone moving very fast, then he felt a swift blow to the back of his neck. He then fell forward onto his face as he skid across the grassy field while Tsunade stood behind him with Orochimaru watching their moves carefully. 'What an amazing person…usually they'd be gasping and struggling for air. It looks like I need to weaken her a bit more…' Kabuto thought as Tsunade fell to her knees while breathing hard. Getting up Kabuto got into a squat as he glared at Tsunade. 'To the edge of her life.'

He then felt a spark surge off of his hand, stopping his movement for a weapon. A completely new feeling washed over him, he had no control of his body any longer. 'I'm trying to move my arm…but instead my leg moves! Could it be!?' He was then suddenly and very painfully brought out of his thought as Tsunade's super charged fist came crashing into his cheek, sending him flying back about 20 meters.

'In this situation, is this all the strength I can muster? He'd be in the stratosphere if I was at 100 percent!' Kabuto was currently just trying to sit up, but in his current state it was near impossible. At the moment he was flailing around on his hands and knees looking somewhat lie a turtle.

Orochimaru couldn't help but chuckle at his assistant's predicament. "I see."

Still flailing around the Yakushi was trying to get his thought straight after being ratted by the earlier hit. 'This isn't just a hit…it's a nerve attack!'

"So you figured it out…it was a nerve attack! It's the use of chakra, converted into an electrical current. Which I flowed through your system!" She said as Kabuto flopped around spastically until he was once again in a squat position.

'The brain and the body's communication are all done by electrical signals. So Tsunade disrupted that flow, by sending electricity into his nervous system a brilliant tactic!' Orochimaru thought as he mused over the battle going on before his eyes.

With a flash of her hands Tsunade's palm began to glow a healing green. Pressing it to her chest she began to heal the damage Kabuto had done. 'Healing uses up too much chakra…at this rate…'

'Even after not fighting for so long…is this really the power of one of the Sannin?' Kabuto thought before he shut his eyes to concentrate on his movements. 'When I move my right hand…my left leg moves. When I try to move my left ankle…my right shoulder moves.' He continued going through movements and what they did for about a minute before his eyes snapped open. 'I think I've got about 75 percent of my movements down…that attack what a pain it is!' Spinning fast he pulled out a kunai with a fluid movement and then spun it rapidly around his finger. "Don't look down on me!" He yelled as he charged the still healing Tsunade.

'What?! How can he move in that condition??'

Running fast, his kunai was raking along the ground before he raised it up to a stab position. "You are scared of blood aren't you!? I'll show you plenty right now!!" He yelled as he began to bring the blade down toward her. But suddenly a smoke bomb flew in front of both of them and exploded, making Kabuto leap back with a guess of who it was.

Orochimaru glared as the form of his old friend and team mate appeared from within the smoke along side Tsunade's assistant, the Kyuubi brat, and the boy who had made a fool of Kabuto during the preliminaries of the Chunin Exams. "It's been a long time, Jiraiya." The snake said mockingly, remembering their last meeting.

"Orochimaru…I see your eyes are as crazy looking as always." The Gama-Sennin replied sarcastically.

Looking around, the first thing Naruto noticed was the silver haired man standing before him with a deep glare on his face directed at Arashi. "Kabuto?" He said questioningly.

"I see you three know each other." Jiraiya said once he noticed the glare between Kabuto and Arashi.

"Yeah we took the Chunin exams together; Arashi beat him to go to the finals." Naruto answered, making Kabuto unconsciously rub his jaw. "Why are you here?"

But before he could say anything Tsunade leapt up from where she was and shoved Jiraiya to the ground and took off after Kabuto. "Move! I'll deal with him!!" She yelled as she leapt high in the air and then came down angrily with a side kick that swept over Kabuto's head as he ducked, blowing his hair everywhere from the force of it. Continuing with her kick she landed a second one that knocked the kunai out of his hands and shot it over and into a nearby rock. "Even if you can move…" She said as he weaved back and forth, dodging her punched. "Your body still isn't at 100 percent!" With a leg sweep coning Kabuto flipped back moved closer to the kunai he had lost. "So you can't move as much as you like!" With a final jump backwards to avoid an incoming punch he fond himself with his back to the rock and his hand next to the kunai. "I'm not going to let you escape!" Grabbing the kunai he jumped at her just as she was throwing a strong punch. "Too late!!"

The next thing everyone saw was a sprat of blood shoot up into the air. Stumbling back, Tsunade began to shake as she looked up at Kabuto, who had slit his own wrist to drench her in blood. "It looks like my body movements are back to normal." He said with a smirk while still bleeding.

'Blood…so much blood…' Tsunade thought as she trembled in fear.

"Facing two Sannin is a bit too dangerous for me." Putting his kunai away he stepped forward with a fist drawn back, ready to strike. "But at least…I have one down!!!" He yelled as he connected a hard hit to her face that sent her flying back. Tsunade then crashed into Shizune, who caught her master as best she could.

"I knew I had a funny feeling about you Kabuto." Naruto said as he narrowed his glare at his forehead protector. "It's a shame Arashi didn't hurt you more the last time we met! He could have flushed out a spy!"

"That's right…I was a spy of Otogakure." He said calmly before returning his gaze to Arashi. "My mission was to gather information on Konoha Shinobi for Orochimaru-sama."

"But you were a Konoha shinobi yourself!" Arashi yelled at him loudly.

"No…it was just an act. Much like the act you portrayed in our fight…and again in your fight with out other follower Dosu." Arashi drew back for a second at Kabuto knowing how he had held back. "What? Did you really think people wouldn't pick up on how you preformed in our fight? How you got through it as fast as you could…you didn't want anyone to find out what you are truly capable of! Or how you preformed that sound cancelling jutsu without hand signs…that was all it took for your Kekkei Genkai to be added to my data…so how many have you copied?" He asked with a smirk, laying out the knowledge he knew. "With Naruto-kun as well, do you expect me to believe you weren't capable of taking Neji out with minimal effort? I saw you take out those Ame Nin during the second exam…you just wanted to get your point across and got in too deep. You both are fools, covering up your talents when you should strive to gain more power! That's why Sasuke will pass you both; you're different from Sasuke-kun."

Naruto's glare deepened at those words, Kabuto had struck a cord with the mention of Sasuke and Arashi could see it. He fists were clenched hard and shaking and Arashi could see that he was about to jump the guy. Raising his arm in front of Naruto he effectively calmed him down but in the process glared ever harder at Kabuto. If there was something Arashi hated more than a traitor…it was a snoop, and before him stood a person who was both and had been snooping around in his and Naruto's business. "You're wrong…that's why Sasuke won't be strong. He thinks only of himself while we fight for out friends and loved ones…we aren't blinded by our revenge." He said intimidating.

But he didn't get the reaction he was looking for, instead Kabuto let out a small chuckle. "Oh Arashi-kun, you know about Itachi-san as well. Do you really think you can intimidate me? If I had gone all out on you the last time we fought you'd be dead right now!"

Behind the two Genin, Shizune had wrapped the trembling Tsunade in her jacket. 'This is the first time I've seen Tsunade-sama like this.' Taking a handkerchief out of her roe Shizune began to dab the blood off the blonde's face tenderly. "You don't have to do everything yourself…I'm here to serve you." She said while cleaning her face of the paralyzing substance.

Arashi still was staring down the purple clothed man with a deep scowl. "You don't need to make such a scary face…you're nothing more than a little Genin. I used to think that you were powerful along with Naruto-kun…but in front of the legendary Sannin you're nothing but a joke! You're like a tiny insect among wolves!" He then smirked at his own irony. "If you interfere…then I'll kill you." He said very calmly, adding to the message he was sending.

Arashi knew he wouldn't stand a chance against a Sannin but against Kabuto…he had already faced him before and he didn't know how much he had been holding back the last time. With a yell the Himura shot out at Kabuto leaving a streak of dust in his path. "Stop it, Arashi!" Jiraiya managed to shout out before he fell to a knee. 'My body is still in bad shape!'

Speeding at him Arashi was already formulating a plan. 'If I can just line him up…' "Ahh!" He yelled as he flung punch after punch at Kabuto, all of which were easily blocked. Jumping back he then disappeared from sight.

'I'll have to keep an eye on that speed of his…' Kabuto thought before catching a blur racing towards his right side. 'He's trying to use my injury as a handicap…fool.' With a sling of his arm Kabuto meant to spray some blood over the blonde's eyes. But for some reason it didn't hit him, still seeing him coming he struck out with his foot to catch him with a devastating kick only to find his foot pass right thru his body. 'An afterimage?!' In a flash of black and crackling blue he was once again met face to face with Arashi's Raiton jutsu. 'Shit! I underestimated him…I can still dodge it though!'

"Raiton: Raire-za no jutsu!" He shouted, his eyes a blazing silver. The bolt of condensed lightning shot out of his finger and lanced by Kabuto who had dodged at the last millisecond. But Kabuto noticed that Arashi's eyes didn't move at all they weren't even focused on him…they were pointed behind him.

Snapping his head around he realized all too late that Arashi had been moving him with his attacks so that he and Orochimaru were lined up. "Orochimaru-sama!!" He yelled out as he saw the incoming bolt streak towards his master. Seeing the bolt coming at him Orochimaru went to move but at that very moment his arms flared up and he hesitated for a split second.

"GAHHH!" He screamed out in pain as a smoking three inch hole now decorated his right upper arm. With murder in his eyes he screamed to Kabuto. "Kill him! Kill him NOW Kabuto!!"

Arashi now found himself in a very bad position, he was still in midair and Kabuto was currently standing right in front of him with a grim look upon his face. With a smirk Kabuto brought his arm back and then slammed a fist into Arashi's stomach sending him shooting across the field and unfortunate for Kabuto, into Shizune's awaiting arms. Skidding back, Shizune spit two needles out towards Kabuto's position. 'Poison needles!!' He saw them about a foot from his face when he realized he couldn't dodge them. 'My reflexes haven't recovered yet! I can't dodge!!!' With a tilt of his head he managed to deflect them with his forehead protector.

'It missed!' Shizune cursed in her mind as she came to a sliding halt, still holding tightly onto Arashi.

'What a guy, able to deflect those in his condition…' The white haired man then looked down at his student who was currently clutching his gut in pain. 'Even though he got his ass handed to him, he managed to get a shot off at Orochimaru…who's our real enemy. Good thinking Arashi.'

Setting down Arashi he looked in pain but managed to stand while rubbing his throbbing abdomen. "Thank you nee-chan." While this happened Kabuto had leapt back to Orochimaru's side.

"What are you doing? Kill that brat!!" He said in a pained voice, his arm stung like crazy but compared to the burning of his arms this wasn't even close. Kabuto didn't even respond, instead he reached into his pack and pulled out a small deep red pill.

Shizune gasped at the sight of the pill. "That's…a blood clotting pill." Gaining an odd look from both present Genin.

"Is it to make up for all the blood he lost?" Jiraiya said musingly as he started down his former team mate and the still smoking hole in his right arm.

'That kid…he's the same as me. A medical ninja.' The black robed woman thought as she looked at Kabuto intently.

Orochimaru was glaring at Kabuto for not obeying and killing the Himura on sight for what he did. But something in Kabuto's eyes said that he too wished for Arashi's death. "Orochimaru-sama, please remove the bandage on your left arm." With a sickening smile the pale man shakily brought his arm up and bit down on the bandages, making them fall to the ground. What everyone saw was his now purple arm hang limply at his side while they just stood there eyeing everyone before them.

"So he is Orochimaru…" Naruto said with anger in his voice as the thoughts of Sarutobi entered his mind as well as when he head that name from Sakura concerning what had happened with her and Sasuke in the Forest of Death.

"It's time to show off some of our skills…" Jiraiya then looked back to see Tsunade still trembling beneath her jacket, lightly petting Ton-Ton. "Shizune…you take on four-eyes." Then turning he gazed directly into the only pair of yellow silted eyes looking at him. "And I'll deal with Orochimaru."

The pain in his arm dieing down at the prospect of fighting against Jiraiya. "Kukukukuku! You will try…but you'll fail just like last time."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ahh…this is so troublesome." Shikamaru said as he laid back to watch the clouds, the only problem was that it was a perfectly clear ay with not a cloud in the sky. With a groan he sat back up and addressed his visitor. "Why does it have to be me?"

"B-Because I have no one e-else to talk too. N-Naruto-kun isn't here and I n-normally go to him w-when I n-need to talk about s-s-something. You're a-also loyal a-and would keep a s-secret if asked Shikamaru-kun." Hinata stammered out while pressing her fingers together.

"When did you get your stutter back? Plus this is more of a thing for Chouji or Ino…"

"I-It has to d-do with w-what I need to t-talk about, and no I can't g-get Chouji-kun or Ino to talk w-with me. Ino likes to gossip s-so I absolutely c-can't let her k-know…and she w-would get t-the information out of Chouji-kun s-somehow. So…so please Shikamaru-kun, promise me you w-won't speak of t-this to anyone." She managed to get out as she sat beside the Nara still fiddling with her fingers.

The shadow user could see the truth behind her words, and from the seriousness of her nervousness he was oddly interested. "Fine…but don't you be going around telling people I hand out counseling sessions." He got a happy nod from the pale eyed girl at his reluctant acceptance. "So I'm guessing this has to do with Arashi, he's really the only thing that makes you stutter like that."

Pausing for a moment Hinata could do no more than look at her legs folder beneath her. "Anou…you see…I…I mean we…"

"Spit it out girl, what did you two break up?" Shikamaru asked, trying to get this done quickly.

Snapping up Hinata held her hands in front of her defensively. "Oh no! Not that…it's just that something h-happened with O-Otou-san and I d-don't k-know how Arashi w-will feel about it or h-how he'll react…"

"And that would be?" He asked before taking a long sip of his water bottle next to him.

"…M-M-Marriage…" She said quietly.

Suddenly at hearing that word the contents of Shikamaru's mouth spewed out into the air before he looked bug eyed at her. "WHAT!?!?"

"Otou-san s-set up an a-arranged marriage between me and A-Arashi-kun with the l-late Hokage-sama some time a-ago…h-how am I going to tell him!?" She asked in a frantic voice.

"Wait a minute you're arranged to marry the guy you're head over heels in love with and your freaking out? Shouldn't you be really happy?" Shikamaru proclaimed as he got to him feet

"Am I, I've never been this happy in my life…maybe when we told each other our feelings…but it's not that I don't want it. I just don't want it to be forced on Arashi if _he_ doesn't want it." She said while thinking of the blonde Himura that was at the center of her heart.

Shikamaru then let off a small chuckle. "You're going to be a good wife someday…hold on. If your going to be wed to Arashi, then you'd be a Himura…so who's going to run the Hyuuga with you not there?" He asked, oddly intrigued.

"Hanabi-chan has been n-named the heir." She then saw an odd look from the pineapple haired Nin. "She won't tell a-anyone…Otou-san t-threatened her with p-putting Neji-nii-san's C-Caged Bird Seal on h-her and m-making him heir if s-she uttered a w-word to anyone. I-It's safe to s-say she won't be t-talking. But w-what am I going to do a-about A-Arashi-kun?" The future Himura pleaded.

Sitting back down Shikamaru fell into thought for a moment before opening his eyes and looking hard at Hinata. "You shouldn't tell him until you absolutely have to. If the wedding isn't for a long time then perhaps he'll ask you to marry him and the whole thing can be avoided. If you told him now it might not be good, stuff like that level of commitment usually scares the hell out of guys, so I would say to wait a while unless you absolutely have to. It doesn't really matter though, you're going to get married no matter what either of you say or think about it…all that really matters is that you love each other. Do you really love him Hinata?"

She nodded happily. "Hai!"

"Knowing Arashi, I know he loves you too, he might take it hard but I almost guarantee he'll be happy with it." The shadow user said with a smile.

He then suddenly was tackled to the ground in a tight hug. "Thank you Shikamaru!" Hinata said as she held onto him with him struggling to free himself from a possibly bad looking embrace. If anyone was to stumble upon them they might take it the wrong way and that was the last thing he wanted.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So what do we do Ero-Sennin?" Naruto asked of his sensei as Arashi came and stood beside him, their eyes locked on Orochimaru and a scowl plastered on their faces.

"That kid was right, with present company you two are just weak little kids. Stay and protect Tsunade." He then turned to Shizune. "But first I need Tsunade to do something bout my body."

"Sumimasen…but I believe that the poison's effects will last for a while longer. Even I can't do anything about it.

Snapping his head at her in surprise, the boys shook their heads at his love of over dramatizing his actions. "What?! Is that true?!?" Seeing that rolled eyes of his students he returned to the closest to normal that he could get. "Geez, not much of a choice…I guess I will just have to deal with this, won't I? Tsunade, you should use your healing jutsu and let your body rest."

"Come on I can fight! If we work together…" Arashi said to Jiraiya his eyes still locked on the pale Sannin.

"I said no! You just got defeated by that Four-eyes and you think you can do anything against Orochimaru?! HA! Your skill levels are too different. This opponent is the same as me, a Sannin, and the one who killed Sandaime Hokage. An eye for an eye! I am the only one who can deal with him!"

"Oji-san…" Arashi said under his breath. "But that's why I have to…"

"Plus that Four-eyes brat, he's as skilled as Kakashi."

Suddenly Naruto stepped up with his hands in their favorite position. "In that case…Kage Bunshin no…"

"I said no! Don't use your Kage Bunshin, there would be no point." Turning the Sannin's gaze fell from his orange clad student to the purple bow wearing traitor before him. "It wouldn't have any effect against him. It would just be a waste of chakra." 'Now to deal with these two…' He thought as he surveyed what was needed to be done. "Well…it's go time!" Biting his thumb Jiraiya drew blood as Kabuto swiped his finger over the slice on his wrist.

Streaking it down the summoning tattoo on Orochimaru's arm at the same time that Jiraiya spread it onto his palm they both went into a couple hand signs before slamming their palms to the ground. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" As the smoke cleared Kabuto and Orochimaru now stood atop the head of one of the two gigantic snakes that were summoned. But on Jiraiya's end he groaned loudly as the smoke cleared to reveal Gamakichi.

"Yo!" He said, looking up at his summoner.

"What is this!?" Jiraiya screamed as he, Naruto, and Arashi stared bug eyed at the lack of a good summon. "What the hell is going on?!?"

Everyone was confused, but Shizune had a saddened look in her eyes at the spectacle before her. 'Jiraiya-sama…because of the poison he can't mold his chakra properly.'

"Kukukuku…it looks like you haven't recovered from your stupidity, have you? Even though you don't have any talent that was pathetic!" Orochimaru said insultingly as Gamakichi glared deeply at him. "It looks like Tsunade has done something to you."

Standing up from his summoning position Kabuto decided to put in his thoughts. "It's because that jutsu needed two sacrifices…apparently she didn't think it through. She probably gave him a poison that limits his power."

A sick grin swept over Orochimaru's face at the thought that Kabuto was implying. "To sacrifice Jiraiya, eh? It doesn't exactly sound like what Tsunade would do, but…"

With a grim stare at the man atop the summoned snake, Jiraiya knew that Orochimaru had an idea of what was going on. "Kuso, they noticed my handicap so quickly.'

"You were always like that, you fool." The pale Sannin chided from the towering snakes.

'Damn, those guys are making Ero-Sennin look stupid…only Arashi and I can do that!!' Naruto thought as he brought his thumb up to his mouth and bite hand, drawing blood. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" He yelled after flashing through several hand signs and slamming his palm to the ground.

Orochimaru suddenly got a shocked look on his face. 'This one can summon too? Knowing that idiot he's trying to make another Yondaime and gave him the contract with the toads…' "Maybe I should have killed him the first time we met…" He thought with a grin. "I sealed the power within him and let him go…" A large plume of smoke arose from where Naruto had been standing. "But the only one able to unseal it is the Sannin and Sandaime."

"Does that mean that Jiraiya-sama has done something to Naruto-kun?"

"It would seem that way; from the look of it he's taken the brat and the Himura on as new students. So if Naruto is able to use the power of the Kyuubi…" Orochimaru said as the smoke began to clear. Everyone surrounding Naruto simply stared at him in shock, as the smoke cleared it revealed not a useful summons, but instead a small yellow toad with bloated cheeks and a blue vest. Seeing the tiny toad Orochimaru let out a small laugh. "That dim witted child is even more like Jiraiya than I thought! It would seem he only unsealed my seal, not taught the boy…"

"What the hell?" Naruto said to himself as he looked down at another one of his failed summoning attempts.

Jiraiya sighed deeply at him and followed it up with a disappointed look at the boy. 'It looks like he's not ready yet…I should have taught him more on it instead of peeping…' He admitted to himself.

Gamakichi just looked at the yellow toad with an ashamed look on his face. "Hey! Gamatatsu, what are you doing here?!"

The bigger yet stupider looking toad turned slowly to see a familiar face. "Ah, Gamakichi-niichan…this is my first time being summoned! I wonder if I can help!" He said while waving his arms in the air with a brainless look plastered on his face.

"Baka! You'll be a snack for him, you better hide!"

"I get a snack?" The toad said while jumping for joy, causing Naruto and Arashi shudder at the stupidity of Naruto's summon.

Feed up with the spectacle of idiocracy before him, Orochimaru readied himself for combat. "Here we go!" He said while Kabuto shot off to the side. Seeing the movement the Gama-Sennin took on a grim look at the prospect of fighting Orochimaru in his condition. "I'm going after Jiraiya!" The pale man shouted as Kabuto leapt atop the second snake's head. "I'll leave the others to you…unless you really don't think you can handle the Himura again…"

"I'll have no problems with them…it's a shame though, I wanted to fight with the legendary Sannin Jiraiya-sama." With a slam the snakes crashed into the other's positions, throwing dirt and ruble high into the air. Grabbing Tsunade, Shizune sped off to get out while under the cover of the debris. This was not the case as Kabuto suddenly appeared before her and while in midair planted a hard right hook into her face, sending her and the incapacitated Sannin spiraling to the ground.

Seeing this Arashi leap high as Kabuto landed on a still falling rock. Jumping off of another large airborne rock he shot off towards the medical Nin with fists tightened. But he was caught off guard when from within the smoke one of the Snakes appeared and shut its mouth tight, in an attempt to eat the Himura. "Arashi!!" Jiraiya yelled out as he saw this transpire from another falling boulder.

"Your opponent is me!" He heard from below him as Orochimaru was closing in on his falling position from atop the second snake.

With an intense glare the white haired shinobi did several hand signs while gathering as much chakra as he could in his poisoned state. "Doton: Yomi no Mura!!" Suddenly the ground beneath the two snakes was transformed into a murky, stinking swamp that pulled the snakes deep into it, firmly holding them in a swampy prison. Landing on the head where Orochimaru was standing the Sannin was crouched and ready or battle as he talked to himself, going over what just happened. "Kuso! I can't sink it with this pathetic attempt!" 'The poison is still affecting me…' "But at least I stopped the snake's movement." He said as he looked over to Orochimaru, who was standing with his back turned to him.

On the ground Shizune had just fired off a prepared needle shot at Kabuto, who dodged easily. Charging his hand with chakra they glowed blue as he connected with a palm thrust to her chest, sending her skidding back with a pained look on her face. Reaching head back she took in a large breath of air she prepared for her attack. "Ninpo doku gasu!" She said as with an exhale a stream of purple poison gas flowed out at the similarly clad ninja.

Looking at the incoming cloud of poison Kabuto had a worried look upon his face. "If I get caught in that, I'll be in trouble!"

As the smoke dissipated into the air Shizune was suddenly hit with a gripping pain in her legs. Looking down she saw a glowing pair of hands coming out of the ground and were gripped tightly around her ankles. As Kabuto rose out of the ground, Shizune fell to her knees. 'My ankles! He cut my Achilles tendon!'

"Grrr…ahh!" Arashi let out a guttural groan as he struggled to force the giant snake's mouth open and ensure his escape. With a final push he leapt out if the snake's mouth, only to find that as soon as he touched the ground that the head was coming down on his fast to crush him. The gigantic head collided with him hard, sending him crashing into a nearby rock, bouncing off of it before the snake sank under the swamp completely.

Seeing this Naruto was torn, he had orders from Jiraiya to protect Tsunade, who was soon to be under attack due to the now injured Shizune. But then he had to go see if his friend was all right, it was then that an idea struck him. An idea that he would berate himself for not figuring out sooner. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu." He said to himself as a second Naruto puffed into existence. "Go see if Arashi is alright!" He ordered before the clone rushed over to his downed friend.

"Here I go!" Orochimaru said with a smirk as he rushed his old friend with murderous intent. Seeing him flash through several hand signs as the wind blew his hair every which way, Orochimaru thrust his neck out like a snakes and shot it at his opponent.

"Ninpo…marin jijizo!!" The Sannin said before his hair hardened into thousands of spikes and wrapped around his body, leaving only his face exposed so he could see. The hair defense went up mere seconds before Orochimaru's foot crashed into it, piercing it several times. But with his foot now attached he pulled it apart slightly with a pull of his leg, this new opening was immediately capitalized on by the snaky Sannin. Thrusting his elongated neck into the opening he clamped down hard on Jiraiya's neck with his teeth. "Kuso…you sure use some messed up jutsu!"

"You too, using your crazy hair to cause me such trouble!" Orochimaru responded, chidingly. "Just give up already…you never will be able to defeat me…dobe!"

Naruto could only watch almost helplessly as Kabuto planted another left hook onto Shizune's face, knocking her down to the ground and splashing a small speck of blood on the still trembling Tsunade, making her shake even more with fear. She saw the battered bodies of Shizune and Arashi and couldn't help but see the corpses of Dan and Nawaki lay beside them. Naruto however was scanning the area to see what else was going on as Kabuto slowly made his way closer to the two. He could see the Jiraiya was having some trouble with Orochimaru, and that despite getting thrown into solid rock hard, Arashi was slowly picking himself off and getting told something by his Kage Bunshin. Then with a nod of his friend's head his Kage Bunshin puffed away. Naruto's gaze then shifter back to the purple clad ninja before him. 'So Arashi's going to go try and help Ero-Sennin…wait a minute how did I know that…? Now's not the time, I need to take out this freak!' With a burst of speed, Naruto shot out at Kabuto as he neared them. "Bastard!!" He shouted.

But his rush was in vain, seeing as how with a quick backhand Kabuto had knocked him effortlessly off to the side in a heap. He didn't even break stride, his focus had been entirely on the woman before him and did not want anyone interfering. Having swatted the fly away he continued his course towards the target. Seeing the glint in his eyes, Tsunade's heart began to beat faster and faster with each step he took closer to her. This continued until he was at arms length away from her. As he reached his hand out, she smacked it away as she yelled in fear at the movement. Kabuto could only look at the woman he had once had so much respect for in disgust. "What a pity…since we are both medical ninjas, I respected you."

"Stop! Don't come any closer!!" She screamed, trying to inch herself away.

"Get a hold of yourself Tsunade-san." He replied, his respect for the Sannin gone. "At this rate, you'll bring Orochimaru to tears." With that he began to simply kick her farther to the ground, all the while with a smirk on his face.

Orochimaru now stood on one side of the snake's head, his arms dangling lifeless by his side. 'Damn, if I had the use of my arms I could have branded him with a curse mark and I wouldn't have to deal with him anymore…curse you Sarutobi-sensei!' He thought as he glared into the eyes of his former friend. But in a blur off black and green a second person was there, Orochimaru simply smirked as his eyes met with the silver ones of the Himura. "So I was right, so _have_ activated it!" 'Perhaps I should have gone after him instead of Sasuke-kun…'

Jiraiya just scowled at his student, making the Himura lower his head slightly. "I told you to stay with Tsunade!"

"But…" He said before returning his blazing silver eyes to the Snake Sannin before him.

"I know you want to avenge Sarutobi, but this is a fight you can not win! You said it yourself earlier, you're not blinded by your revenge, so open your eyes and help Naruto!!" Jiraiya yelled, pointing to his now downed friend and Kabuto who was stomping on Tsunade. "Now GO!!" He screamed, with a nod of his head Arashi disappeared in little more than a blur. 'Damn, that kid is fast.' Jiraiya thought before he surpassed Arashi's speed and looked no more than a blur, clashing again and again with the other blur that moved just as fast as he. 'I need to end this soon!'

Landing from their high speed clash Orochimaru chuckled at the man kneeling before him. "In the past you were the hero of the village, and now your dragging those brats around. One who can't summon to save his life and the other who thinks he can defeat me!! From what I see, for someone as strong as you…those brats are worthless!"

Jiraiya simply scoffed at his old friend. "It's true what they say; the eyes are the first to go with old age. If you can't see what they can do you're truly too old for your own good. In time those two will be able to take you down with no problems! If I wanted to have no fun and just teach someone who'll pick up everything I can teach them in an instant I'd go with that Uchiha kid…but where's the fun in that." He said while holding his right hand behind his back, trying to start up a Rasengan but to no avail. 'Kuso, I don't have enough chakra to use it!'

"No, it's because they both are like you used to be…and like your last prize student…"

With a smirk Jiraiya replied. "You have no idea..."

"Huh? Besides, Sasuke-kun is perfect with his Sharingan; he'll be the prefect student once I get my hands on him! The most talented shinobi are the ones that are able to handle the most skills. The word 'ninja' refers to al people who use ninjutsu."

"That isn't what a Shinobi is at all. You never did learn that did you? A ninja is…something a Shinobi becomes. I will tell you one thing, you son of a bitch. The most important thing for a Shinobi…" Meanwhile Kabuto was once again closing in on a trembling Tsunade. "It's not the number of jutsu he can use. The most important thing is…" Kabuto clenched his fist and pulled it back for a hard punch. Thrusting his fist forward he was suddenly met with something he wasn't expecting…Naruto. The punch had landed on the boy's forehead protector. "Determination!"

Naruto's piercing blue eyes were now locked with Kabuto's, a look of determination etched into his very soul. Hearing the sound of something getting smacked repeatedly Kabuto looked down to see a spinning orb of blue chakra begin to form in Naruto's hand. Kabuto's eyes went wide as it formed up, but it was just rotating fast, it wasn't contained or concentrated. He smirked to himself as he saw him reach back to launch the attack. Suddenly his eyes went wider as Arashi appeared behind Naruto with a deep scowl across his face and the exact same jutsu spinning in his hand, exactly the same rotation and lack of containment. 'Shit! Two of them, I don't know if I can dodge them both!!' He thought as his hands burst into their glowing blue forms.

"Will...and the determination to never give up…both of those boys have more than enough of that to overcome any obstacle!" Jiraiya said wit a large smirk on his face.

With both boys now shooting at him with an attack coming towards him, Kabuto rolled forward, missing the incoming Rasengan by inches as they sailed over his head. He then slapped the back of Naruto's leg and the side of Arashi's left hip, sending them falling to the ground. 'I don't know what kind of jutsu you've learned…but with that kind of motion there is no way you can hit me.'

Naruto was kneeled down and gripping the back of his leg while Arashi was laying flat on his stomach and in extreme pain. Trying to sit up he found that he couldn't, his leg wouldn't respond and whenever he tried to move a horrible pain in his hip streaked to his brain. "Kuso, we can't hit a moving target so easily." He said to Naruto as he tried to figure out a way to at least get to his feet.

'I know, and I still haven't perfected it yet! It's not condensed and contained enough!'

"Kukukuku, from the looks of it you fractured your leg when you were hit by that snake Himura, and now that I severed your muscles attached to your hip…you won't be moving for quite sometime. As for you Naruto-kun, I severed the nerves in your leg; I don't foresee you posing a problem to me."

'Kuso! What should I do? Arashi's out of commission and think I can move if I absolutely have to. But with that jutsu…I need to use both hands! If he get's one I'm done for!' Then at that moment for some reason his thoughts trailed back to how he had known Arashi was going to Jiraiya when it was his clone who found out the information. Then it hit him, and an idea was planted firmly inside his head.

"Kukuku, doesn't this just make you want to run away?" He said in a voice very full of himself, reaching into his pack he whipped out one of the cards that he had shown then during the time they first met. "Naruto-kun, when you were in the Chunin Exams, this is what you said… "Don't look down on me, I will not run away! You can act tough all you want, you guys aren't gunna scare me off! I don't care if I do get stuck as a Genin for the rest of my life! I'll still be Hokage someday!!" Could you say the same thing to me?"

Hearing that Naruto had actually said those words stirred something inside Tsunade. _"We're not like you...we'll definitely receive the Hokage name!"_ Then once more she saw all four of the faces that had been haunting her thoughts recently. _"Because becoming Hokage is my dream!"_

"You really should give up, just look at your situation. If you want to run away, then run away." He was met only with the determined glare of Naruto and the same from what he could see of Arashi's as well. "What's with those eyes? I'm only trying to help you; if you stay…you'll die. If you die, your dreams will be nothing…brats like you think that everything is so easy. That's why they talk nonsense and have such utterly unrealistic dreams. That's why they don't give up when they should." Kabuto said as he approached Naruto to beat him into submission.

Lifting a foot up to smash it down on his injured leg he was surprised to find that the blow had been caught by Arashi, show was just close enough to move his arm and catch it. "You can keep spouting off crap like that, but we said we'd become Hokage and never give up…and that's our Nindo, our ninja way!!" Arashi's words seemed to give a new flame to Naruto's determination. With several grunts Naruto lifted himself up to his feet, coming to a weak stand before the imposing medical Nin.

Tsunade could only watch on in shock as the boys refused to give up, even at the bitter end. What happened next made her glare hard at the spectacled person before him. With a swift kick, Kabuto sent Arashi skidding until he finally stopped at Tsunade's lap, turning his gaze to Naruto his hand flared glowing blue once more as he laded a swift chop to the boy's neck, sending him flying over to in front of the Sannin in a crumpled heap. "If you two had just laid there, it would have been alright."

Looking down, Tsunade saw two more people that looked as if they were also going to die before her in their pursuit of Hokage. "Why…" She squeaked out as miraculously Naruto rose to his defiant feet and she held tightly onto Arashi's shoulder from where he laid, his eyes barely still open.

"Hey Tsunade-baachan…" He said as he slowly made his favorite hand sign.

"Why won't you give up!?" Kabuto asked, clearly pissed off at the boy.

"Just like I promised in that bet, I **will** win that necklace!" Tsunade could only look on in awe of his determination and the small tugs she was feeling from Arashi, clearly trying as best he could to get up and fight alongside his friend. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto said as a second Naruto appeared beside him once the smoke cleared.

'What's the point of a Kage Bunshin??' She asked herself, the fact that a Genin could do such a high level jutsu not even registering in her mind. "You don't need to protect me any longer Naruto! Just stop it!" She cried, trying to avoid what was cemented in her mind.

With a sweep of his arm Kabuto whipped out a Kunai and looked at the boy defiantly standing before him. "I told you that if you keep on with that attitude, you will die!!" He then sped off towards the awaiting Narutos. "And if you die, your dreams die as well!!"

"That's enough! Get out of the way!!"

The blade was getting closer by ever step Kabuto made, and yet Naruto smirked at the impending doom he faced. "It'll all be alright dattebayo." Seeing the kunai he lifted his arm up, but not to block. The blade pierced straight through his palm, but that wasn't all. Ass soon as it had gone through, Naruto clamped down hard on Kabuto's hand, effectively trapping him in front of him. "Until…" He said as he lifted his right hand over to the Kage Bunshin beside him. "Until I become Hokage…I will never die!!" Kabuto was now trying his best to pull his hand away but it was proving too difficult at the moment. "You…now you won't dodge this one! Here I go!" The Bunshin then began to slap his spinning chakra against the one in Naruto's hand, the chakra then began to condense and speed up, fully contained in the growing sphere. As Arashi watched through his half open eyes he knew what Naruto was doing and let out a pained chuckle.

"It's the same jutsu they used earlier! No…it's different! This is…!"

'I see, he used the Kage Bunshin to compress the chakra to its fullest!' Tsunade thought in awe of the boy. 'He mastered it in a week…it should be impossible!!'

"If I can compress my chakra…I can make my move!!" Pulling the spiraling ball back behind him he then shoved it hard into the trapped man's stomach with as much force as Naruto could muster, completely draining him of all strength. Kabuto let out a very pained scream as the orb collided with his body. "RASENGAN!!!!"

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**Wow a very intense chapter, I had been wanting to get to some action and this quenched my thirst for it. I also got to add some stuff for the upcoming arc! YAY! I actually just finished the full plot for that arc and I think it's going to be great! **

**So yeah the next chapter should be the last one of this arc so after I put that up it will be the end of the reward if you can get them all in before I post the next chapter I'll still. So everyone who wants to do it you need to hurry and review them all. I already introduced the one for SwordofMagus.**

**Well I hope you all really liked this one and as an added bonus I'm going to give you a present because of what I felt was a chapter not as good as it could have been last time. Okay so the present is the first Omake!"**

**T.A.C. Omake: Fury of the Himura!**

Sano had returned to his house after his first official date with Kenshi. She was as of yet still in the exact same spot she had been standing in for the last 2 hours after she received her first kiss from the Himura prodigy. The one thing that suddenly snapped her out of her trance was the snickering of a certain Namikaze that just loved to mess with her. With a quick whip of her ever present Katana the fence fell apart into about a hundred triangle shaped pieces, exposing a horrified Arashi Namikaze and a stoic looking Hiashi Hyuuga…her team mates. She was just glad her crazy Sensei wasn't currently present. "What on earth ore you two doing there of all places?"

Arashi was just about to speak up when he was silenced by Hiashi's hand placed before his mouth. "We came to get you for a team meeting."

But the hand wasn't kept there for long. "Yeah but that was like two hours ago! How long were you planning on daydreaming about…Sano-kun!" He said, making a kissy face that just made Kenshi's blood boil. "Come on then, Ero-Sennin is waiting for us." The future Hokage said while spastically moving around his new Chunin vest.

Kenshi just looked at him oddly. "Uhh…Arashi, I don't think your supposed to wear that under that." She said pointing to his as of yet, ever present white and sky blue hoodie.

"But I love my hoodie, and I have to wear my vest…how else am I supposed to wear it??" The blond asked questioningly, causing the Himura to laugh slightly at his antics.

"You baka, you're not supposed to wear the hoodie once you become a Chunin!"

Sticking out his lower lip, Arashi trudged alongside the other two. "Well at least Ero-Sennin thought it looked good…" He said under his breath as they neared the training grounds.

"Why do you insist on calling him that? You do know he's one of the legendary Sannin, right?" Hiashi chimed in, rolling his eyes at the boy's blatant disrespect of one of the most respected people in the village.

"It's because he is…like when I call Kenshi a Sano-obsessed-sword-freak…it's because she is." He could feel the killing intent coming off of said Himura but decided to prod even further…after all what could she do? "Hey Hiashi-kun, what do you think their first kid'll be? A boy or a girl?"

Hiashi knew that she was about to lose it, but hey…it wouldn't be on him. "Well seeing as how they are both so physical I think it'll be funny when it's a girl and she doesn't want anything to do with swords…"

Arashi thought for a moment on that before bursting out laughing. "Yeah and I don't think Arashi would be a very good girl's name!"

"THAT'S IT!!! HOW DARE YOU ASSUME I'LL NAME MY CHILD AFTER YOU!! I'M GOING BREAK YOUR DAMN ARM!!!!" The next thing that was hear for about a mile as a horrifying scream of fear and then one of pain.

"She really did a number on you this time!" Jiraiya said as he shook his head in shame at his prize, and now incapacitated student. "When will you learn not to mess with that Himura fury!?"

Arashi just shrugged his shoulders and sat back against the hospital bed with a sigh. "And with my left arm broken I can't do hand signs so I can't even train when I get out of here tomorrow!!" A serious look overcame the Namikaze as he lay in bed, then suddenly it seemed as though a light went off in his head. "Ero-Sennin! Got get me a bunch of water balloons please!!" He shouted ecstatically and with a big smile on his face.

"Sure whatever, you just better not throw any at me you little brat!" He said before fetching the balloons that would later lead to one of Arashi's greatest achievements three years later.

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**There you go the first Omake. **

**I hope everyone liked it and this chapter. Now please review!!! Reviews are like Kage Bunshin to Naruto…you can never have to many!! Also I updated my profile so everyone go on there and read what I put down. If anyone is interested in what I said towards the end of it please contact me. Till next time! **

**Also could someone PLEASE start a thread for this story on Naruto Manga Returns fanfic section!! Threads started by the authors don' really get people's attention, so it would be GREATLY appreciated if someone would do that for me!!**

**So REVIEW!!! Or I'll hit you with an Oodama Rasengan!!**


	27. The Sannin Battle!

**Review Reply:**

**Cloudfightback: **Thanks, you should keep emailing me. It gives me something to do on my bored days, plus it keeps me wanting to write more. Talking with fans of my work always does that!

**NarutoDaFox: **No I don't think you get to threaten me and my mighty Author no Jutsu!

**SwordofMagus:** Yes I rather enjoyed created him, I thought it was about time for a sadistic psycho to appear.

**Raiton77:** Yeah I had always wondered what spurred Yondaime-sama into thinking up the Rasengan…thus my version comes from my need for some comedy in this otherwise serious chapter.

**Royal Snaza: **You really do need to get on more often! Well no, judging the sates that those two are in I don't think they'll be summoning their bosses.

**Chosha Kurenai:** No I won't be doing the movies, even though Arashi could whoop some serious ass against people who use ice as their jutsu, haha. I'm pretty sure the Ice Wolf jutsu that the guy used on Kakashi before he died would piss Arashi off as attempted stealing of his stuff, but it would be funny. But yes once again you have guessed close to the mark, Zankoji is from the next arc, but no he's not related in any way to Akatsuki.

**Artemis-Kibasgirlfriend: ** Shikamaru seems like he needed a hug haha.

**Cici Linne: **No he doesn't have it mastered. It's one of the things Naruto beats him at.

**Animeskid:** You reread this last one 10 times?? Wow, it must have been better than I thought! I hope it made up for ch 25's shortness.

**RasenganRendan01:** Thank you; I still await your character name.

**Uchiha Kaz:** I figured some people would like to see into the lives of little Yondaime, Kenshi, and Hiashi…Hiashi actually as a sense of humor! Almost as scary as Shino's!

**Ryumikratos:** Zankoji and the return of fighting seem to be the concentration of these reviews I'm getting for the last chapter.

**Grapefruit.ninja:** I really hope you can get yours up soon, and crank out several of them. For some reason I like the idea of my character appearing in someone else's stuff, only if it's done well.

**NarutoFanBoy4Life:** (Shutters at having to read 'Believe it') Well thanks for all the reviews, now you should go read my second fic. You should look for your guy to appear either next chapter or the one after it.

**Trueswipe:** Well I always rejoice at the prospects of a new regular reviewer, no all I need is for you to go back and tell me what you liked about the rest of the chapters! And what C2 did you find TAC in, I'm only in like 6 of them or something. Well I look forward to more reviews from you!

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto! Only Arashi and any other OC's I create

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_(Previously)_

_With a sweep of his arm Kabuto whipped out a Kunai and looked at the boy defiantly standing before him. "I told you that if you keep on with that attitude, you will die!!" He then sped off towards the awaiting Narutos. "And if you die, your dreams die as well!!"_

"_That's enough! Get out of the way!!"_

_The blade was getting closer by ever step Kabuto made, and yet Naruto smirked at the impending doom he faced. "It'll all be alright dattebayo." Seeing the kunai he lifted his arm up, but not to block. The blade pierced straight through his palm, but that wasn't all. Ass soon as it had gone through, Naruto clamped down hard on Kabuto's hand, effectively trapping him in front of him. "Until…" He said as he lifted his right hand over to the Kage Bunshin beside him. "Until I become Hokage…I will never die!!" Kabuto was now trying his best to pull his hand away but it was proving too difficult at the moment. "You…now you won't dodge this one! Here I go!" The Bunshin then began to slap his spinning chakra against the one in Naruto's hand, the chakra then began to condense and speed up, fully contained in the growing sphere. As Arashi watched through his half open eyes he knew what Naruto was doing and let out a pained chuckle._

"_It's the same jutsu they used earlier! No…it's different! This is…!"_

'_I see, he used the Kage Bunshin to compress the chakra to its fullest!' Tsunade thought in awe of the boy. 'He mastered it in a week…it should be impossible!!'_

"_If I can compress my chakra…I can make my move!!" Pulling the spiraling ball back behind him he then shoved it hard into the trapped man's stomach with as much force as Naruto could muster, completely draining him of all strength. Kabuto let out a very pained scream as the orb collided with his body. "RASENGAN!!!!"_

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"RASENGAN!!!" Naruto screamed as the spiraling ball of chakra was slammed into Kabuto's abdomen, gaining a pained scream from his as it began to push harder into him.

'What is this jutsu!!' He though, squinting to see through the torrent of chakra swirling before his eyes he quickly yet gently hit Naruto on the chest with his glowing blue hand. Just after he did this, Naruto put the final push into the attack; Kabuto's cloths began to rip apart in a spiral where the Rasengan was. With a final blast of power and a strong wind blowing off him he was suddenly shot back while engulfed in the spinning chakra and the still spinning Rasengan at its heart. "AHHHHH!" He screamed as he shot back fast until he slammed incredibly hard into one of the many boulders that littered the landscape, sending dirt and debris from the impact into the air, effectively blocking the view of the attack's aftermath.

As the dust drifted away the view of Kabuto's slumped over form could be seen through the hail of debris falling back down to the ground. The spectacled Nin was embedded in the crater made into the rock he was slammed into with a slow drip of blood falling to the ground from where he wearily stood. Tsunade simply looked on in shock as she still held on to Arashi's body. Overhead the barely visible flashes followed by deafening crashes stopped momentarily as Jiraiya and Orochimaru stuck themselves the to the underside of the giant snake's raised head. 'Hm…that brat actually pulled it off!' Jiraiya thought as he looked on at the destruction caused by his student's attack from his upside down viewpoint.

From beside his former team mate the snake Sannin looked down at the sight of the aftermath of the attack. 'That Kyuubi-gaki…when did he learn that jutsu!?' With a quick glance he looked over to Jiraiya with narrowed eyes. 'That fool…knowing him he's taught the Himura as well. This could get troublesome…'

Back on the ground, Tsunade was still looking at Naruto's back wide eyed. 'It can't be…he actually…in one week this kid mastered the Rasengan!?'

'He really did it…I never would have thought of using Kage Bunshin to contain it.' Arashi thought from his position on Tsunade's lap. His gaze then scrunched up into a frown. 'Kuso…how can **I** get it! I'm falling behind him…maybe I could…' He then shook his head hard to rattle his train of thought out of his head. 'No! I swore to myself I wouldn't copy his Kage Bunshin no jutsu, that's Naruto's jutsu and I won't take it from him! What's wrong with me, I'm happy for Naruto for mastering the jutsu…but I'm ashamed at myself that I haven't gotten it yet!'

It was then that he heard a voice he hadn't been in close conversation with for a while. **"That's only natural Arashi, but you seem to forget that you both have progressed at an amazing speed on the Rasengan. It took me three years to create and master, and it took Ero-Sennin two and a half years to master!"** Arashi hadn't know the total time it had taken Jiraiya so he felt a little better but he still was conflicted on how he would master the jutsu. **"Naruto has an uncanny ability to learn jutsu that I haven't ever seen before, you have it too but unfortunately not as much as Naruto…but you have my respect for sticking to your self vow to leave Kage Bunshin alone."** Arashi then heard the Yondaime sigh from within him. **"It's not something I've done in a while…but I've almost mastered a jutsu that will ensure your vow will stand forever. I'm not very good with it but I'm positive you will. Especially if you are…n-never mind that."**

'If I'm what? What are you talking about?' The Himura's attention was then shifter from his internal conversation to what was happening around him as he felt Tsunade's grip tense up on him. Gazing up he stifled out a gasp as he saw Kabuto still standing, albeit in a severely damaged state, his cloths ripped completely open to show a ripped up and burned stomach. But he was still standing and with a smirk on his face that Arashi just couldn't place.

It was soon placed as Naruto coughed hard, hacking up a fair amount of blood. Looking over, Naruto could see the Oto Nin's smirk grow wider as his vision began to blur. His eyes then shut as he fell backwards on onto his back. "Naruto!" Tsunade yelled as she rushed to his side, placing Arashi next to him. Kneeling down that medical specialist looked warily at him and then shot a glance at Kabuto, who was miraculously stepping out of the crater while breathing heavily. "You…how are you moving after the damage from that jutsu!?"

"Kukukuku…" He laughed as a sizzling sound could be heard, a little bit of steam was coming off his wounds as then bean to shrink before Tsunade's eyes. "Before that massive ball of chakra hit my stomach, I had already begun healing it. The reason I'm so valuable to Orochimaru-sama is not only for my performance or my skill with jutsu…" He said as his wounds completely disappeared to show just plain skin in the area of where the attack had landed. "But rather because of my ability to regenerate; to be able to replace my old, damaged cells with new ones." Closing his eyes his smirk hide what was going on inside his head. 'But there's a limit…and I've used up almost all my chakra.' Taking a step forward he called back out to the three in front of him. "That jutsu…it seemed to be Naruto-kun's trump card…" Naruto was now shaking slightly while he lay beside his friend and under the watchful eye of Tsunade. Taking another step forward Kabuto's entire body seemed to throb in horrifying pain. His glasses suddenly cracked from some after affect of the Rasengan. 'What the hell…' Falling to his knees he then fell straight forward and onto his face. 'How can this be? Although I managed to regenerate…there was still so much damage. I don't have enough chakra left…what kind of jutsu was that!?' He though while in pain.

As she saw the silver haired Nin fall flat on his face in pain Tsunade managed to catch the small twitch Naruto showed from the corner of her eye. Placing her ear on his chest she concentrated and listened to his heartbeat. "He has an irregular heartbeat!" Quickly she unzipped the boy's jacket and shakily placed her hands over his black undershirt. "How did this happen…?" With a snap of her head she glared deeply at Kabuto, who was still flat on the ground. 'Don't tell me he tore up Naruto's muscles in that little hit!'

From his position next to Naruto, Arashi watched in growing worry as Tsunade's fingers glowed green and began to run slowly down Naruto's shirt, cutting it open. Naruto seemed dead; the only signs of life were the occasional twitches his body would give along with the shaky rise and fall of his chest. Now with her glowing hands held over his chest, pumping chakra into him with the determination for him to live etched onto her face. Seeing his friend on the verge of death Arashi felt something he had never felt before, a fear deeper than anything he had witnessed. A fear deriving from the possible loses of one of the only constant things in his life, the person who he had been closest with, the person he had grown up with, the person who he shares his dreams with, and his best friend. With a guttural groan he pushed himself up to his knees, leaning over Naruto on the opposite side Tsunade was. This didn't go unnoticed by the Sannin, the sound of snapping tendons and ligaments alerted her to Arashi's movements. "Naruto…" He said quietly almost under his breath.

Tsunade could see the tears about to fall from the Himura's eyes and could understand the fear she saw in them. It was akin to her's when she first heard of Nawaki's death, and all she knew at the moment was that she refused to have another go through the pain she had felt after his death. "We're not going to lose him Arashi!" She said as she pushed more chakra into Naruto with a new fire of determination.

"Kukuku…" They heard from behind them, pulling their attention slightly away from the injured Uzumaki. "You both are fools! Naruto-kun can't hold on much longer…when I hit him I also cut his Chakra system. He won't be able to use the Kyuubi's power to heal himself. No matter what you do you won't be able to save him, I hit him with everything I had!"

"SHUT UP!!" Tsunade bellowed, not even taking her gaze off her work. "I'll kill you after I'm done wit him!"

"He's stopped breathing!" Arashi said loudly, his hands clenched hard by his side. Looking down Tsunade could see that he was right, but the sight of Naruto's near death face made the vision of the deceased faces of the past flash beside the blonde's own face.

But while all of this was going on, a certain demon was beginning to get concerned. **"What's going on…why is this world starting to fade?"** The fox said in her deep and powerful voice as her cage began to become enveloped in darkness. **"Why can't I heal the kit? What happened…"**

"His heart stopped!!" Arashi basically screamed at the teary eyed Sannin. "Move!" He said as he slapped her hands aside and put his hands down with a look of desperation on his face.

"**SAVE HIM!!"** The Himura heard bellow from within him.

"NARUTOOOO!!!" He screamed as his hands erupted in pure yellow, his eyes blazing silver. With tears streaming down his face Arashi was pushing every drop of chakra he had left into his friend, he didn't know what he would do without him and refused to find out.

Tsunade just looked at the boy and felt her heart breaking, he looked just like she had when she refused to let Dan go. But then she took in more and saw the color of the chakra. 'How is that possible, only…it can't be! Yondaime!?'

She was then quickly brought out of her thoughts when she saw a movement under her, and felt a small tug at hr necklace. Looking down she was surprised to see Naruto's hand clasping the stone and a weak smile upon his face. "The bet…I win…" He said before he passed out, his hand falling from where it had been. The moment he had done this Arashi slumped forward and lay across Naruto's sleeping body, passed out from chakra exhaustion.

"That's not possible! What did you do?" Kabuto shakily asked from where he lay.

Grabbing Naruto's falling hand, her hands glowed green while she smiled at the boy. "Their bond of friendship refused to be cut by your hands…" She then looked down at Naruto's steadily raising chest, pushing Arashi up with every breath. "Because Hokage is your dream?" As she said these words, the hole in Naruto's palm closed up, leaving to mark to show it was ever there. "Just once more…" Gently she lifted Naruto's head and put the cursed necklace around it. "…Once more I want to put faith in some else's dreams." Her gaze then shifted to the sleeping Himura. 'But you'll have competition for that dream…'

Back atop the remaining snake, the two other Sannin were locked in a harsh glare with each other. "Those brats aren't doing too well."

"Tsunade is a medical specialist…there's no need to worry about those two. I'm touched you care about my student though."

The snake Sannin only scoffed at Jiraiya's ever present joking, even in this situation. "Since you're so touched, perhaps you could explain that yellow chakra that that Himura just used to save the Kyuubi brat…" He said with a sneer, causing Jiraiya to gulp audibly. "Ah…so I'm right. I never did think your prize student would simply go without a fight." Orochimaru then let out a couple hard laughs. "With this I can probably get that damn Akatsuki off my back…"

"It's too late for that…we've already faced off against a pair from that organization, and they most likely figured it out themselves. Besides, you're fighting me right now…Akatsuki should be the least of your worries!" He said with a glare as he got into a taijutsu stance.

Turning his yellow silted eyes, Orochimaru looked down to the destruction Naruto had caused and at where the two blondes now lay. 'Who knew things like this had happened? That Kyuubi brat looks to be quite troublesome when it gets down to the wire…' Then something crossed his mind because he got a wide grin on his pale face. 'This is the best chance to decimate that damn Leader's plans, without what these two hold their plans are ruined!!'

In a swift movement, Orochimaru shot down the side of the snake like a torpedo and in his weakened state Jiraiya had not reacted as fast as he should have. Following after him as they fell, Jiraiya knew what he was heading for. With a quick turn of his weight, Orochimaru shot his tongue out and wrapped it around Jiraiya's ankle like a rope. "Fuck!" He managed to say before he was hurled into the ground with a devastating crash, leaving him in a Jiraiya sized hole in the ground.

Using the grounded Gama-Sennin as a pivot point, Orochimaru redirected himself towards the two unconscious boys. Opening his mouth while wearing a large smile on it, the Kusanagi slide out, making Orochimaru more alike to a flying spear at the moment.

'He's after the boys!!' Tsunade thought before her body moved on its own, and in a spray of blood found itself impaled through the chest by Orochimaru's sword. With the Kusanagi still sticking out of her back, Tsunade could only shake in pain as she looked down at the shocked pale face that the sword stemmed from. After a hard cough from the slug tamer, blood now trickled down her chin.

Pulling back, Orochimaru retracted the sword and his tongue back to their original positions. "Tsunade…you were the only one I had no intention of killing. However, letting those boys live would be too troublesome to me and everyone else. You have with out a doubt noticed what resides within the Himura, and you know of the Kyuubi. By dealing with them, those stronger than I will be ruined…I had hoped that you wouldn't interfere…"

Trembling and trying to get the air she needed with her pierced lung she raised her head to scowl at the man before her. "I will…I will protect them!"

"Hmm, you're shaking and covered in blood. Why would you, as one of the Sannin, want to risk your life for the lives of two little Genin?"

Not finding the breath to respond immediately, Tsunade coughed up a couple new puddles of the thick red liquid that was draining from her. Bringing her gaze up yet again, Orochimaru was met with a death glare. "To protect Konoha!"

"To protect Konoha?" Orochimaru asked, not fully understanding what she was saying.

With a soft look now overtaking her face, she looked back to the sight of Arashi laying over Naruto, both fast asleep. "Why…why you ask? Were we not Genin once? Was Sarutobi-sensei not a Genin once? Were the Hokage not like this once? You want to know why…it's because you're looking at two of Konoha's future Hokage!!"

Her self admittance and acknowledgement was cut short by the hard chuckle of Orochimaru. "What kind of nonsense is that? Being Hokage is shit, no one but fool would do it!" Those words shook Tsunade to her core, remembering back to her first meeting with Naruto and Arashi; she remembered saying those exact words. Her words echoed inside her mind, had she really been that different only a week ago?

'How much have these kids really changed me?' She thought as momentarily reflected back on all the words of wisdom she had received and yet turned a deaf ear to. _"What about their dreams!? What about your dreams Tsunade-sama? Are you willing to throw away all of that!?"_ Shizune called out to her from her memories. _"The past Hokage protected Konoha and its people to keep things as they were, to protect the village and that very ideal, they gave their lives to protect that very ideal."_ A serious Jiraiya said calmly. Orochimaru looked on, slightly intrigued as Tsunade struggled to her feet. "From this point on, I too…will risk my life!"

"Ha! If you are so willing to throw your life away for these brats…hurry up and die!!" He yelled as he extended the Kusanagi once more and made a quick and deep slash at her, ripping from her left shoulder down her chest diagonally. With blood spraying out of the fresh wound, Tsunade fell back almost lifeless to the ground.

It was at this moment that Shizune awoke from her battle with Kabuto. Looking over she saw her master in a very injured state and the two boys down and out, over to the side she could also see that Jiraiya was in a bad shape as well. Orochimaru was now walking slowly towards the two boys with his sword sticking out of his mouth like a metal tongue. "Now…there are only two left…if the Akatsuki were to get their grubby hands on these two it would become very bothersome."

"Tsunade-sama!!" Shizune yelled at the top of her lungs as Orochimaru threw his head back to make a final blow of the two unconscious containers. At that moment Jiraiya managed to get out of the hole he had been stuck in and was speeding through hand signs when he saw Orochimaru prepare to kill. But he was too late; the snake Sannin whipped his head forward gaining a large splatter of blood from where his sword was now embedded. Everyone present gasped in shock as they saw Tsunade bent over the two protectively, with a large sword gash on her back, and very apparent because of the amount she was bleeding from it. Retracting the Kusanagi back inside him, Orochimaru looked on with widened eyes at the injured Sannin.

'With the wounds I've already given her…how can she still move like that!?' Now bending over the two, Tsunade coughed up a trickle of blood that fell on Naruto's cheek and the back of Arashi's neck. "You're still tying to protect those two?"

Still trembling, Tsunade turned to glare at the cause of her injuries. "I've told you already…from this point on…I will risk my life!"

These words pierced through Orochimaru, igniting a rage within him due to their similarity to what Sarutobi had said to him in his last few minutes. "Then die you half dead weakling!!" He shouted as he delivered a kick to her side that toppled her to the opposing side of the two. Lying on the ground she couldn't stop the trembling that had taken over her being ever since Kabuto had doused her in his blood, and the amount around her wasn't helping her scared mind calm its body down. "You're pathetic Tsunade, even if you are able to move…the shaking of your body is not going to stop. With deep wounds like that, you're just hurting yourself more! Why would you want to protect those kids at the cost of your own life? Why would you want to fight for the sake of Konoha, when it's where all of your past pain derives from?" As he said this his grin was suddenly whipped off his face as he saw her shaking suddenly stop, and in a flash an devastating kick was planted on his chin, sending him flying back. "No way! Her trembling stopped!?" He managed to say before he impacted with the ground and slid a couple feet. Before him Tsunade now stood with her leg hanging in the air after the hit.

Coming to a calmer posture she glared at the downed Sannin harshly. "The reason why is…" Orochimaru had risen to his feet and now was showing the slightest hint of fear on his face as he looked at the death glare he was getting. '"I am the Godaime Hokage!" She said as the diamond mark on her forehead began to glow and an ever stranger violet mark spread from it and covered her face.

"That seal is…" Orochimaru said in shock as he felt the explosion of chakra coming off her. Shizune just watched as she felt the pressure of the chakra that was released by her master. After returning to his feet, Orochimaru glared at the woman with his yellow eyes. "What are you planning to do now? You're already wounded…in that condition, you will not be able to fight me properly."

In response, Tsunade simply held up a single hand sign and started to focus her chakra. Seeing exactly what she was doing, Shizune gasped and called out to her master. "P-Please wait! I'll heal your wounds! Please don't release the seal!!"

Heeding no thought to Shizune's pleas, Tsunade's hair began to float and sway while her body gave off a faint red glow. "Ninpo Sozo Saise!" She said as the marking upon her face vanished and an immense amount of charka could be felt by everyone present. Orochimaru gaped at the spectacle before him, before his eyes he was witnessing every wound on Tsunade healing with incredible speed. From her pierced lung all the way own to the various scratches on her face, they all vanished from her body as a steam billowed off them.

'What in Kami-sama's name is this jutsu!?' As the last of the markings faded Tsunade stood up tall and met the snake's now smiling gaze. "It seems that I'm not the only one who has been developing new jutsu! Exactly what is that jutsu?"

"For years I've stored up minuet amounts of chakra and saved it inside the mark on my forehead. I have taken that massive amount of chakra, compressed, and sealed it. Once it's released I can use it to stimulate cell repair to any damaged cells in my body. Not only is it fast, but it's able to heal ever organ. Not just healing per say, but regeneration...in releasing the seal I also regain every drop of chakra I had stored in the mark…" Orochimaru's eyebrows rose at that remark. "So now my chakra is back to its maximum! It's the ultimate jutsu, which means in battle, I will never die!" With a smirk she raised her hand up and whipped a bit of blood from her lip onto her thumb.

'But there's a limit to how much one can regenerate cells…to use a jutsu like that means to shorten one's lifespan!' Shizune thought momentarily, that was before she saw Tsunade whip the blood down her left wrist in preparation. "TSUNADE-SAMA!!"

Seeing what was about to transpire, Kabuto forced himself to his feet, hearing the tearing of muscles in his abdomen. 'She's going to…' "OROCHIMARU-SAMA!!" He called out as Orochimaru leapt over to his side.

'Come out! Please come out!' Jiraiya thought as he placed his now bleeding thumb against his left palm.

"Quickly!" Orochimaru yelled at Kabuto, who whipped a bit of blood down the snake contract on the Sannin's arm.

Flashing through the hand signs Jiraiya glared as he saw Kabuto doing the same while keeping anchored to Orochimaru for a source of chakra. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" The three yelled out as the surrounding area exploded in a plume of smoke.

As the smoke cleared it revealed each of the Sannin standing atop their respective boss summons. Orochimaru had an ominous feeling as he looked out to the white and blue slug with Tsunade and the boys atop it and then over to Jiraiya upon Gamabunta's head.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After her little encounter in the forest Sakura was feeling several emotions at once and was trying to sort them out as she stormed through the streets of Konoha. The major feeling he was getting was anger and rage, not at the situation…but at Kiba. 'How could have done that!? That stupid flea bitten…' The other feeling she was getting was fear, fear about what her encounter could mean. She had questions that needed to be answered, and being the girl she was she decided to go straight to the source.

With a frown that indicated thought she set off to where Ino had once mentioned where Asuma lived. Coming up to the complex, the pink haired girl began to wonder how she was going to be able to find out which apartment belonged to the smoke ridden Jonin. Her qualms were quelled once she saw a door open up on the second floor, looking closely she was surprised to see her own sensei step out of the door and run her hand through her oddly ruffled hair. "What's Kurenai-sensei doing here? I know this isn't where she lives…her place is on the other end of town…" Pushing the thought to the back of her mind she made her way up the stairs after Kurenai was gone, and sure enough the door she had gone out of had the words 'Asuma Sarutobi' printed above the eye hole.

With a quick rap Sakura waited in front of the door for the bearded man, how her sensei liked the facial hair Sakura would never know. "Oh Sakura…what are you doing here?" She heard as she was pulled from her thoughts. In front of her was the man she had come to see. But he didn't exactly look like he normally did, his clothing was the same except for the exception of his Jonin jacket, leaving his in his dark blue long sleeve shirt. He had a oddly smug smile on his face and looked to have just got done with training or something because he smelled of sweat.

"Oh yeah, I kind of have some questions I need to ask you Asuma-sensei." She said out right, causing the Jonin to look around nervously, thinking she was going to question him regarding Kurenai.

"Sure, let's head on into town." He said as he slipped into his flack jacket. Once in town they made their way towards a tea shop. Sitting down they soon had drinks in their hands and were sipping them quietly. "So what did you want to ask me Sakura?"

At first she hesitated slightly at bringing up her question but soon managed to force it out. "What is that thing exactly?" She asked while pointing to the sash that was ever presently on the Jonin.

"This thing?" He said, looking down at the sash and the symbol on it as he light up a cigarette much to Sakura's disgust.

"You know those things give you cancer and can kill you Sensei." She said, waving her hand in front of her nose.

Asuma scoffed at her comment, it's not like it wasn't the first time someone had brought it up. So he went with what he always said. "I doubt a little smoke is going to give me cancer let alone kill me." He said with a chuckle while blowing his smoke off to the side to at least make Sakura more comfortable. "But to answer your question…it is a sash that shows the group I used to belong to." Sakura raised an eyebrow to this. "Many years ago I was one of the 12 Guard Ninja of Fire…we were responsible for protecting the Daimyo of the Land of Fire. We reported directly to him instead of the Hokage and carried out his will. Wow that takes me back that was right before I was promoted to Jonin. Why do you want to know?"

"I was just curious…but…do other countries have a similar group ours?"

"Yeah of course, every one of the 5 Great Shinobi Countries has one…except for the Land of Water." He said grimly. "That group was destroyed by a man named Kisame Hoshigaki many years ago before his assassinated the Daimyo. But no matter where they are from they can be dangerous." He saw Sakura shiver at his last sentence, confirming his suspicions. "Sakura you've seen a Guard Ninja around haven't you?" She shook her head slightly to indicate a yes, gaining a sigh from Asuma who pulled out a pen and a piece of paper from who knows where. "I want you to draw the symbol you saw on them."

After some thinking she placed the pen back down. "Here, it might not be the exact thing but I think its close."

Looking at the kanji symbol that was on the paper, his cigarette fell out of his mouth as he looked hard at it. "W-What? This can't be…why would one of them be here?" Looking back at Sakura he had an intense look on his face. "I have to go alert ANBU to this, if any of them are around here they'll find them." With that he got up and left the store, leaving Sakura o herself once again.

"He didn't even tell me what country it meant!!" She said to herself as she stormed off out of the tea shop, once again pissed off.

"Sakura!" She heard behind her followed by a loud yip. Turning around she was met with possibly the last person she wanted to see at the moment…Kiba.

"What do you want?" She said through her gritted teeth.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry for what happened back there." He could only get out that much before he was interrupted by Sakura.

"Why are you apologizing to me? You should go talk to Hinata and say your sorry for getting her targeted…or better yet, go find Arashi and tell him you just endangered Hinata. I'd looove to see his reaction to that!" She said in a very pissed off tone.

"Please Sakura-chan, just let me explain…" He then shrank back as he saw the fist come flying at his face. But opening his eyes after a couple seconds he only saw that it had stopped a few inches in front of his face.

"You're not even worth hitting…coward." She said coldly as she marched off down the street. "I might as well go see Hinata and make sure that guy hasn't shown up or anything."

Kiba was just frozen still where he had been as she disappeared down the street. Her words doing more damage than any punch she had ever given him. Gritting his teeth and clenching his fists he snarled at where she had been standing. "What's wrong with me Akamaru? Am I really a coward…" There was no response from he dog, so Kiba assumed that he was in fact a coward. "Well no more! From this day forward Kiba Inuzuka will not be a coward!"

Kiba stood there with his fist thrust in the air and a smile on his face. That was of course he felt someone watching him from behind. Turning around suspiciously he was freaked out to find the teary eyed form of Gai shaking his fist before his face in admiration. "YOSH! What a beautiful pledge of Youth! Come Kiba, we shall shed our cowardice together while wearing these cloths of YOUTH!!" He shouted as he handed the Inuzuka a green spandex suit.

But before Gai could say anything else he saw that Kiba had gone screaming down the street in a frantic attempt to escape the youth crazed Jonin.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Each of the Sannin now stood atop their most powerful summons and were al staring each other down as their summons did the same. "What is this, Orochimaru?" Gamabunta said, breaking the silence that had befallen the present company. "Planning a reunion or something?" The enormous toad then too a long drag of his equally huge pipe, blowing it out in a long thick stream. "Are you going to start some kind of fight, Jiraiya?"

With a small laugh Jiraiya found it amazing that the Toad Boss could joke at a time like this. "Baka, it's been a long time since I last called you, so what are you talking about? But yeah, I think it's about time to settle the score." He then directed himself directly to the self proclaimed Otokage atop the huge purple snake. "Orochimaru, today you will be defeated!!"

Surveying the area around him, the snake the two Oto Nin were currently atop of looked up at them and spoke up. "Oi, Orochimaru, don't call me to such a troublesome place…" The Sannin atop his head didn't respond, but instead continued his stare down with Jiraiya. "You bastard, didn't you hear me?!"

"Please don't say that Manda-sama." Kabuto replied in his master's defense. "We will surely make it up to you later."

"Since when do I talk to you brat!?" The huge serpent snapped back at Kabuto. "Don't talk to me like you know me!" Kabuto was starting to have second thoughts about summoning Manda at the moment, but they had no choice no other summon could stand against Gamabunta and Katsuyu. "Hey Orochimaru, for the sacrifice make sure that you prepare 100 people."

'Even as his servant, if Manda knew Orochimaru couldn't use his jutsu, he would abandon us. We can't just tell him "We don't have much of a choice." He'd be just as likely to kill us as Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-sama. In this situation, calling upon Manda is just too dangerous.'

Over on the white and blue slug Tsunade glanced back at the two boys that had been brought up with her when the slug had been summoned. "Katsuyu, bring those two down to Shizune."

"Hai, I got it." The massive invertebrate said quickly as an odd growth began to form under Naruto and Arashi. Getting bigger it took the shape of a slug, the newly created clone then turned and started to make its way towards the edge of the slug it had spawned from.

Down on the ground Shizune was frantically healing her severed leg tendons. "Alright! All done!" She said to herself as she got up and turned to make her way up Katsuyu and aid Tsunade in her battle. This was of course before a smaller slug plummeted like a boulder and landed mere feet in front of the black haired woman.

"Shizune-sama, please take care of these children." Being out of it for a while Shizune was shocked to see the state the two were in. "Also, since this lace is about to turn into a horrible battlefield, and as I am a Bunshin let's get as far away as we can." Reaching over, Shizune threw each boy over one of her shoulders and prepared to get some distance between herself and the Sannin. "That is what Tsunade-sama wants." The Bunshin then proceeded to follow Shizune, just to make sure the three of them would be same.

'Tsunade-sama…' She thought as she looked up at the top of the massive slug before turning to flee to a safer distance.

After a small chuckle for a gigantic toad, Gamabunta took a large inhale of his pipe. Then with a smirk he blew it out right in the face of Manda. The sake responded with a glare and a snaky growl at the toad. "You bastard, I should make you into toad jerky!"

Reaching back, Gamabunta began to draw his blade. "And I was just thinking I could use a new snake skin wallet…"

The three beasts continued their stare down as their masters did the same. "Orochimaru, you are too evil; you are beyond help!"

"Beyond help? Kukuku…that's a bad joke!"

"After today, that Sannin will be no more!" Tsunade said as the giant animals tensed up for battle.

For while they all sat there, staring each other down as a calm breeze blew by them. Suddenly Katsuyu moved forward and with a swelled mouth shot out a yellow liquid at Manda. "Zeshi Nensan!"

Moving quickly, Manda used a nearby rock as a turning point, shooting off towards Katsuyu. But the liquid that the slug had fired off ended up landing on the rock and burned straight through it, showing how powerful her acid is. Using the momentum of his turn, Manda wrapped around the Slug several times and began to constrict. "I'll take care of you first!" He said as his fanged mouth opened up overtop of Tsunade, but suddenly Gamabunta shot towards them with his blade drawn and ready. With a stabbing motion he went for the kill, but Manda dodged at the last second and instead clamped down on the blade, all three caught tangled together in a stalemate.

While in this tangle, Manda never stopped his squeeze of Katsuyu. With the pressure getting greater where he was holding her, the slug's exposed parts began to inflate like a balloon when you squeeze the middle. "Tsunade-sama…I can't hold it for long." She said as her master nodded and leapt off of her. With a final constriction, the slug erupted into a thousand smaller slugs, mush to the annoyance of Manda and Orochimaru. Now being much smaller, the thousand Katsuyu quickly reformed back into her original size a little bit away from the other two.

Now with his body not wrapped around the slug, Manda shifted his body to slam his tail down of Gamabunta. But by letting go of his blade and back flipping away from the incoming attack, the toad and Jiraiya were able to escape. "Here he comes!" Jiraiya called out as his ride touched down and skidded to a stop.

"I know!" Gamabunta replied, but quickly had to move. With a fling of his head, Manda shot the wakizashi out of his mouth and directly at Bunta. Seeing his own blade streaking towards him, he had no choice but to dive to the side to avoid it. The blade however continued until it slammed into the ground mere feet in front of where Katsuyu had reformed herself. Hitting the ground at the angle it had, its momentum swung it up to a vertical resting spot. This new addition to the landscape Tsunade then used to leap back atop Katsuyu's head as she heard Jiraiya call out to her.

"Tsunade-hime, get back!" He then turned back to stare down the massive snake before him and his old toad friend. "Bunta, how about some oil?" He said as he flashed through a couple hand signs, gaining a raised eyebrow from Orochimaru.

"Got it!" The toad proclaimed as he gurgled up the thick substance, filling his now growing cheeks with it and pushing into his gut, trying to push up more of the liquid.

It was at the moment that Manda and Orochimaru charged that they unleashed the jutsu. "Katon: Gamayu Endan!!" Jiraiya yelled as he then shot out a powerful stream of fire, which in turn ignited the stream of oil that Gamabunta had started to spew. Turning all before them into a raging inferno. The most powerful katon jutsu he had ever seen engulfed Orochimaru and company along with about half a square mile of the battlefield.

The only thing visible to Jiraiya from within the inferno was the silhouette of Manda seeming to melt from the intense heat of the attack. "Hm…how's that you damn snake!?" Bunta said victoriously to himself.

"Did we really do it?" It was then that the flames began to blow away, revealing that the shape they had seen was merely the snake's shed skin. "No, that is…just the skin! He molted!" The crispy skin then crumbled away as the wind blew it down with a rumble, but what was odd that even after it had fallen to the ground, the earth still shook. Realizing what it was Jiraiya called out to his ride "Bunta!! He's underground!"

"Nani!?" Was all he was able to get out before a huge form shot out of the ground at the two, catching it with his webbed hands Bunta had stopped it, that was till he saw that it was only Manda's tail. Turning quickly he saw the snake's head burst from the ground behind him with jaws open and ready to kill.

But suddenly with a glint on light in the sky, Tsunade yelled out. "Jiraiya!! Move!" It was then that Bunta's massive blade was brought down forcefully through Manda's snout, pinning him to the ground by the Slug summoner. "Keep your mouth shut snake!"

The two who until recently had been atop Manda's head now landed a bit behind where the blade now pierced through the snake's jaw. 'As I thought, fighting two Sannin at the same time is a bit difficult.' Orochimaru thought before after a swelling in his cheeks, he shot out his tongue at an incredible speed towards the Sannin perched atop the big blade.

"AH!" The thick tongue of Orochimaru had wrapped itself around Tsunade's throat and was beginning to tighten, cutting off her airways.

"Kukuku…I will choke the life out of you!" Orochimaru as able to annunciate with his tongue wrapped around Tsunade's neck.

'My chakra…' Reaching up she began to pull hard against the tightening noose of flesh, trying to free herself. 'Moving that blade took a lot out of me…at this rate…'

'Even if she said she would never die in battle, if I strangle you, you will die eventually…isn't that right, Tsunade?' Orochimaru thought as a sadistic grin overtook his features.

'How long…how many more minutes can I hold on until I'm drained?' The female Sannin thought as she managed to get a fist under the tongue. 'I'll have to risk everything…' With that thought she managed to pull the tongue off her and held onto it tightly. "Why not?! It's time to settle this once and for all!!" she yelled as she yanked with all her might to rocket Orochimaru towards her, being pulled y the very thing he had tried to kill her with.

'No way!!'

"URAHHH!!" She bellowed as her fist slammed into Orochimaru's cheek with devastating power. "You bastard!!" The snake Sannin then shot back down like a bullet out of a gun. "Not yet!!" Once more she pulled him back up, twirling around she then launched him high into the air, his tongue hanging limply as he remained dazed from the first blow. Jumping up to his level Tsunade began to pummel him again and again with bone crunching hits. Then with a massive uppercut Orochimaru was sent even higher into the air, only to be hit hard in the ribs with a powerful kick, sending him plummeting down to the earth. But once landing on the top of Bunta's blade Tsunade had other plans for him. Grabbing his still falling form by the tongue once more she whipped him back at her. "TAKE THIS!!!" She screamed at Orochimaru as his eyes went wide at seeing the incoming haymaker coming right for his face. But probably what surprised him the most was when the punch completely missed his face and instead went off to his right side. 'Kuso!' Tsunade thought as she felt the muscles in her arm beginning to cramp, tighten, and tear.

Shizune was now watching closely as the Sannin clashed, she had healed the boys to the best of her abilities according to the amount of chakra she had left. It had taken some time, but she managed to fully heal Naruto's chakra network and the muscles around his heart. But Arashi was another story, she hadn't had enough chakra left to fully repair his hip and all the ripped tendons he had. It was a grizzly feeling just seeing all the damage with her chakra, and even if she had her maximum chakra, she didn't have the skill and experience to repair that many tears and damages, it was a job that only Tsunade could do. But after watching the battle for a couple minutes she had checked back on Arashi and was completely shocked when she had discovered that his wounds were healing themselves. 'W-What's going on?' She thought before doing a quick look over of Naruto, to add to her shock the boy was completely healed, everything, every scratch on him was gone, and he just looked to be sleeping. 'So this is what the Kyuubi can do…but how is Arashi-kun doing it?'

"Shizune-sama…" The Bunshin beside her said, bringing Shizune's attention to what Tsunade was doing.

'Tsunade-sama, it's can't be…' She thought while desperately wanting to rush to her aid.

"It seems as though she's reached her limit." The Bunshin aid politely.

Tsunade was breathing hard as she still held onto Orochimaru's tongue, looking down she could see how badly Orochimaru was panting also from her attacks. 'That bastard! I still have to deal with him!'

Seeing the state she was in, Orochimaru managed to crack a smirk even as he dangled from his own tongue. Suddenly Tsunade felt her body pulse and it was soon overtaken by extreme pain. "So that's all you're capable of…"

"Shut up!!" She yelled as she ripped him up and landed a massive blow to his gut, sending him flying off into the air once more. Leaping after him she began beating him again and again, throwing a left then a right and then another left. 'Don't stop!' She thought as she continued to pummel him as they fell through the air. 'Keep on him!' Her strikes kept coming and Orochimaru kept taking them as images of her loved ones flashed in her mind once again, reminding her of who she was fighting for. 'This is my..' Drawing her right hand back for a massive haymaker she screamed her thoughts out loud as she shot her fist forward. "My life sacrificed for this fight!!" The impact was devastating, she cold feel bones crack and something on his face flake off.

"OROCHIMARU-SAMA!!" Kabuto yelled as he witnessed his master plummet to the purple body below him.

With a snap of his eyes Orochimaru realized that that blow had given him enough space to try and make a run for it. Dashing off onto the ground the instant he touched Manda he soon had a Tsunade on his trail. "You're not getting away!! Stay till it's over coward!!" She yelled as she leapt over him and struck out with a right hook, this was dodged but she then brought the back of her fist up from the blow and connected with him, making him stagger back. After missing a couple leg sweeps she connected with several more shots to the face. "Teme!!" Then with a swift spinning kick she caught him under the chin, sending him flying backwards.

Once again in the air he zipped his tongue out and managed to get it to constrict around her midsection, holding her arms down as well. Taking this opportunity he shot at her as the Kusanagi extended out of his mouth, going for the kill. But this was stopped much to Orochimaru's surprise when Tsunade caught the blade between her feet and whipped him away, effectively freeing herself from the tongue and sending Orochimaru skidding across the ground, only to catch another massive left hook to the face the moment he rolled to his feet.

Once more Tsunade began beating him again and again, constantly battering his face with her fists. 'I keep hitting him and hitting him! What is this strange feeling?' Her beating continued as these thoughts raced through her head, with a final uppercut she sent the snake Sannin flying through the air, leaping up he caught him with a side kick that send him skidding across the ground. He didn't seem to move but just sat there, crouched down with his head down. Walking slowly over to him she did several hand signs before her hand began to glow bright blue as he finally stood up, his hair obscuring his face. Clenching her glowing hand into a dangerous fist she glared at Orochimaru as images of Naruto and Arashi's unconscious forms flashed in her head. 'But with this…' She thought as she stopped a few feet before the shakily standing Orochimaru. "This is the END!!!" She screamed as the glowing chakra charged punch slammed into Orochimaru with more force than any of the others, sending him flying back and into the side of the massive hilt of Bunta's wakizashi like a rag doll. Bouncing sickeningly off it he plummeted down to Manda's head.

'He just bore the brunt of that insane strength all at once!' Kabuto thought as he began to crawl over to the twitching form of his master.

"The battle is over…" Jiraiya said to himself from atop Gamabunta as he watched the bespectacled boy crawl to his master like a dog.

"It would seem that way." Bunta replied calmly.

"Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto said softy as he picked up his master's head and cradled it in his arms. Sure he felt odd doing it, but he would be able to live with the odd look he was getting from Jiraiya if Orochimaru was alright.

Feeling a rumbling below him Kabuto had a feeling that having anything to do with Manda would end badly for them in the future. "What a stupid thing you have done. I want to kill and eat you guys, but with my mouth stabbed like this, I can't even get it open! I swear to you Orochimaru, the next time I see you I WILL kill you!" The great snake snapped out before disappearing in an explosion of smoke.

As her hand faded back from its blue glow to normal, Tsunade fell to her knees absolutely exhausted. Jiraiya was smiling proudly at Tsunade for her achievement in beating the living crap out of Orochimaru, but that was before his face shifter into a deep scowl at the sight of Orochimaru standing amidst the clearing smoke. "Kukukuku…" He managed to say while breathing heavily and pained. "Tsunade, even though you didn't heal me, I have an alternative." He was simply met with a hard glare. "Another way to heal these cursed arms…" It was at that moment that she noticed his face, the entire left side of it had peeled away to reveal another younger face beneath it. "I will definitely crush Konoha! It would be good if we were to meet again at that time…my good friends…kukuku!"

'Taking other people's lives and using their bodies for himself…that explains why he doesn't feel like his old self.' Jiraiya thought as he saw Orochimaru begin to melt into the ground.

He was at bout his waist when he spoke again, stopping his decent into the ground while wearing a wide grin. "But before I go I have something that I feel needs to be brought out in the open…" He then turned to Kabuto and gave him a nod, in a puff of smoke he was gone, leaving only the snake Sannin there halfway in the ground. "I feel it's about time you knew the truth about you little brother…"

Tsunade's eyes went wide. 'It couldn't be…'

"Kukukuku…" He said as he began to sink slowly down. "He stumbled upon one of my experiments…I'm sure you know all about those by now…" He then had an evil glint in his eye as only his head was left. Jiraiya hung his head in shame, it appeared his theory had been correct all these years. "…I killed him." With that he was gone, a gust of wind being the only thing that was where he had uttered those words.

Jiraiya instantly rushed off Bunta, but it was too late. The flood gates had opened, tears were now running down Tsunade's cheek like faucets. With a pained scream to the heavens she leapt out to where Orochimaru had vanished and began pounding into the ground. Tons of earth flew into the air and she pounded away, soon she was kneeling at the bottom of a 50 foot crater and had given up on punching and was now clawing her way into the ground, hoping to dig up Orochimaru and slaughter him. Tsunade was then violently pulled to her feet by a pair of strong arms, she had he fought back at first weakly hitting the person's chest pointlessly as she wept. But she was then pulled into a tight hug that felt familiar. "It's okay Tsunade-hime…this changes nothing. It happened too long ago to be this worked up about…now I truly have a reason to skin his hide…he made my Tsunade-hime cry." He then proceeded to give her a small kiss on her forehead.

Still not opening her eyes she held on tight to the larger man as she still wept into his jacket. Taking a whiff of it the smell still brought her back to that safe secure feeling she had gotten all those years ago. "Thank you…Jiraiya." She whispered to him as she then wrapped her arms around him and returned the hug, it had been so long since she had been held like this she never wanted it to end.

"Ouch…" Jiraiya said under his breath, gaining a small laugh from the blonde holding onto him. "Looks like I have a fractured leg and a couple ribs also…so if you didn't squeeze so hard." He then chuckled as the two let go of each other and made their way out of the huge crater and back towards here Shizune was.

That was until Tsunade almost fell when her knees almost gave out. 'Kuso, this jutsu is starting to wear off…my body is already…' She thought as she began to sway back and forth, then right where Jiraiya had given her the light kiss her diamond mark reappeared.

After a little while the three remaining conscious people stood looking over the sleeping Arashi and Naruto, Gamabunta and Katsuyu had left leaving only those three. Jiraiya could only smile when he saw the necklace around Naruto's neck. "Tsunade, you never were a very good gambler."

"Ha…it was a fool's bet…" She said with a smile, the suddenly her body pulsed and she knew what was coming. "Kuso…it looks like my healing power…" Her body then began to wrinkle and revert back to its original form, casting off the permanent henge she uses due to lack of chakra. "It's ok, if I rest a little I will be able to return to my youthful form. Once we head back to town, and these two wake up…we'll head back to Konoha."

"Tsunade…"

"Ha, I'm not Tsunade anymore…you can call me…"

"Godaime Hokage!?!?!" Arashi yelled out a couple day's later from inside the same bar they had first met. "What made you change your mind!?"

This received a rather odd laugh from Jiraiya who simply ruffled the boy's heads. "Bah…from now on Tsunade-baachan will be Hokage?" Naruto said under his breath, clearly in thought.

"What's wrong? You don't seem very happy Naruto?" His sensei asked from the seat next to him.

"I mean comparing her to Oji-san, she just seems…too crude, too dishonest, and she keeps on losing money gambling…" Each thing he listed off Tsunade visibly became more and more irate, a thing Arashi picked up on and just shook his head. He knew where this was going, and thought he might as well head outside to get good seats. "It makes me wonder if she's the right person for the job. If you look at it, this 50 year old baachan is transforming herself to look young…is it really okay for the Hokage to tell everyone such a big lie?"

Just as Arashi had predicted Tsunade was once again on top of the table and in Naruto's face. "Oi Gaki! Get outside!!" Jiraiya sighed heavily as the group once again made their way outside for a Naruto Tsunade Rumble.

Once outside they were once again in the same street way they had been in before. Naruto was busy staring down his opponent while Arashi and Jiraiya shook their heads at the double spectacle. "As you now, I'm going to become Godaime Hokage. I can't allow myself to get so worked up over some little brat…this once finger is enough again." She said while raising her right index finger with a smirk.

"Jut because I'm a kid is no reason to make fun of me you old hag! I'll show you, someday I'll take that title from you!" He then looked over to Arashi with a smirk. "Oh yeah, I got the necklace it's so going to be me!" He then stuck out his tongue at the Himura who by now was thrashing around while being held back by Jiraiya and spouting off random things about breaking Naruto's arms. But after he had calmed down the two about to fight got back to staring each other down. "Here I go!" Naruto said as he shot off towards Tsunade, not even bothering to release his bracers. This probably was a bad idea because the instant he got within 'finger range' he was knocked back exactly like the last time, with her knocking his forehead protector off and making him stumble backwards. Once again as he fell he was met with her hand poised for a flick. 'Kuso, not the flicking again!'

Closing his eyes he awaited the blow, but when it didn't come he got confused, even more when he felt her give him a light kiss on the forehead. Letting go she backed off and simply put a comforting hand on his shoulder with a smile. "Become a good man!" This caused Naruto to go into once of his bouts of insanely big smiles, as he was doing this she looked over at Arashi who was watching with a gin upon his face as well. 'And also become a great Hokage…whichever one of you does…'

"He he…yeah!" Naruto replied still sporting a huge smile.

Everyone was sporting smile, even Jiraiya. 'Looks like I get to train two more Hokage.' He thought with a chuckle. "Yosh, let's head home!" He then said as he place a hand on Arashi's shoulder. After getting everything packed away and getting a hearty lunch the five and a pig were off towards Konoha, to finally return home.

Upon getting on the road everyone was looking forward to their return to the village. But a certain Himura had but one thought on his mind. 'Hina-chan…'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Back in Konoha Iruka was sprinting through the mostly empty halls of Hokage tower with a piece of paper in his hands and a frantic look in his eyes. Making a quick right he stopped for a moment to compose himself before entering the lavish room he had made his way to. "Pardon the interruption, but we just received some news."

Iruka had said this while in a bow and looking up he could make out the outline of a man sitting with one leg crossed over his other knee and his left fist holding up his chin. "Go on." The man said in a slightly agitated voice that held a hint of curiosity within it.

The scared Chunin then walked over and placed the letter in the man's hands. "We just received word from Jiraiya-sama that he has found Tsunade-sama and are on their way back to Konoha as we speak. They should arrive in a day or two…after which Tsunade-sama will be inaugurated as Godaime Hokage and then your business can be dealt with." Iruka then bowed low to the man. "We are terribly sorry for the wait you've had to do."

A smile was now very apparent on the man's face. "Is _he_ with them?" Was all he said in reply.

"Yes, Arashi Himura is accompanying Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama along with Naruto Uzumaki. After you speak with the Hokage he will be summoned as you asked for." Iruka said formally, trying hard not to upset the man.

Lacing his hands together before his face he smiled even bigger as a glint appeared in his eye. "Good…very good…"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Who is this newcomer and why does he want to see Arashi? What will become of Kiba's betrayal and the chains of Zankoji? Will Hinata discuss with Arashi their future, or will she abide by Shikamaru's advice?**

**Find out in the Next chapter of The Arashi Chronicles!!**

**Okay I really want to apologize for the tardiness of this chapter, I've been very very busy lately with work. I also just moved into my new apartment a week ago and have had to be busy with that for a while. **

**As always everyone please review, if you have stories on here you now how much getting a review perks you up and makes you want to write more. I thank everyone who has reviewed so far and plead with them to continue. Also the prize contest now officially has ended. If you have indeed reviewed every chapter and haven't given me a name to use in the upcoming arc you must do it soon. Thanks again fro all the support, it really makes me want to make this the best I can when I see how much people like my work!**

**Another thing is I've been kind of freaking out with the future of TAC, if you read the manga and have read chapter 363 then you probably know what I'm talking about. It totally ruined my plans for that character! I've been struggling with my thoughts on if I should stay true to the manga with its characters or if I should stick with what I had planned!**

**Anyway please review and here's the new feature of TAC.**

**(Jutsu List)**

**Ninpo Sozo Saise – Genesis Rebirth**

**Zeshi Nensan – Acid of One Thousand Fangs**

**Katon: Gamayu Endan – Katon: Toad Oil Flame Bullet**


	28. Of Hokage and Chunin!

**Review Reply:**

**SwordofMagus:** He'll show up soon, as well as his companions, muhahaha!

**Royal Snaza: **haha, yeah I really think that he is gay, even though I put a little Kabuto Homosexual aversion in the last chapter.

**Digitaldestiny360: **Thanks for all the reviews! I hope you continue to keep it up!

**NarutoFanBoy4Life:** Yeah I still am conflicted with what to do with him, but I guess I'll get to that when I get that far into Shippuden!

**Trueswipe:** Meh, oh well if you pull a Shikamaru on me and don't feel like reviewing the others

**Cloudfightback:** That really sucks about your arm man; well you should hurry up and get that 1st chapter done. I'm itching to get my hands on it.

**Eyes of Truth:** Well thanks, its good to have people interested in what will happen later.

**Animeskid:** Thanks for the compliments and keep reviewing!! HAHA!!

**Raiton77: **You were actually the only person to pick up on the little afternoon delight between Asuma and Kurenai, kudos to you!

**Chosha Kurenai:** Arashi did show his determination there as well as his respect of Naruto shown by not using Kage Bunshin; you're the only one who said anything about that.

**Ophion Kuyashi:** Well if it's so rare of you to review I thank you for choosing to do it for my story.

**Ryumikratos:** Well it's always fun to hear people's theories on my stuff.

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto, only Arashi and any other OCs I make up!!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Yahoooo!! Give it one more shot Akamaru!" The distinctive shout of Kiba could be heard from the canopy of a tree as a small white dog could also be seen bouncing back and forth between the thick limbs of several trees as splashes could be heard. "Give it a Dynamic Marking! Hit the target!" Kiba shouted, while after going spinning through the air Akamaru let out a stream of urine that then splashed perfectly on four targets set up in the group of trees.

But also he had hit the secret unmarked target…the bug Shino had been reaching for to capture and add to his collection case slung around him. Looking up slightly agitated, the Aburame sighed deeply. "You call that "Walking the dog"? I think not…I can't collect specimens in peace like this."

Coming up behind him Sakura let out a small sigh. "You know Kiba; he's always like that…trying to get a rise out of you." She said with a slight coldness in her voice.

"No, he's been training harder than I've ever seen him lately…and he won't look you straight in the eye." Turning he pushed up his glasses in his own unique way and looked straight at her. "What happened between you two? Whatever it was he's become more focused and determined…yet I can see his disgust about something."

Sakura couldn't bring herself to tell Shino about what had happened, if only to keep from tarnishing Shino's view of him. "Y-You now I envy you two…" The Aburame simply raised an eyebrow to her blatant avoidance of his question before deciding to hear out what she was saying. "You two are so talented and can be so specialized if need be…not like me…I don't even know what use I'll be in the future."

Shino turned and walked close to her, pulling down his glasses he looked deeply at her with his dark black eyes. "You will find your calling as well Sakura-chan…we've been raised our entire lives to be specialized this way by our clans…besides you've been picking up Kurenai-sensei's genjutsu like a sponge, Kiba and I wouldn't dream of achieving your level. Don't worry; you'll do great at whatever you do choose." A very faint smile could be seen coming up from Shino's collar.

With a smile of her own Sakura whipped away a small tear that had formed during what Shino had told her. "Thank you Shino…"

The bug user simply pushed his glasses back up to their normal position. "Isn't it about time for you to visit Sasuke?"

"Oh! I'll see you two later, or if you want to come and visit him later. Just tell Kiba he and Akamaru are doing well." Sakura said before she left and made her way to the hospital for her daily visit.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The day had finally come, the day that they would be returning to the village. Arashi and Naruto could barely contain themselves once they woke up; both had been a big ball of energy the entire day. In truth Naruto had been a huge ball of energy, while Arashi had to split his excitement with his continued attempts at mastering the Rasengan. The three older members had been relatively quiet that day, only small conversations had arisen between them and they had mostly been between Tsunade and Jiraiya. Shizune had for the most part been silent the entire day. "If you're trying to bore a hole through him, I think a drill would be better." She heard someone say next to her.

Shizune looked over to see Jiraiya looking sternly at her while letting off a small laugh. "Gomen Jiraiya-sama…it's just…I still can't get over how much different he looks from Sensei and Sano-sama." She kept up her intent look at the back of the Himura as he walked alongside Naruto in front of them. "It's like Tsunade-sama said when we first met them. "Change his haircut and he's look exactly like your old student."" She said while holding up her index finger in front of her as she quoted her master.

"Well…" Jiraiya looked up to Arashi with a conflicted look on his face. "There's a reason for that…you were looking after those two during our fight with Orochimaru-teme. Did you notice anything odd with him as we were fighting?" Shizune's face seemed to light up as she remembered to incredible recovery time he had shown. "Well what I'm about to tell you is a SS-Class Village Secret…it's because he's like Naruto…Arashi has Arashi sealed inside him…" He then sighed hard as he scratched his chin in thought. "And here I thought it would get less confusing saying that more often…I guess not."

Shizune was just staring at Jiraiya with her chin dragging on the ground. "What!?!" She said as quietly as her shock ridden brain could allow her. But then she turned her wide eyes to Tsunade, who didn't even seem phased by the information. "You knew about this Tsunade-sama.?! When?"

"While you were still knocked out and after Naruto hit the four-eyes brat with his Rasengan, Arashi shoved me out of the way to give the final push of chakra into Naruto that ended up saving his life…it was yellow chakra. That's all it took, only one person I have ever heard of has had that chakra, so I guessed it. Jiraiya then confirmed my theory when we were waiting for those two to wake up. After all they do have the same birthday, so it was possible."

"B-But does he actually know anything about his own family?" Shizune asked thinking back to how important that aspect had always been to any Himura she had known.

"Not much, but Arashi might have told the boy some things…he hasn't really thought much about it I think. He sees Naruto as the only family he has, and he's not one to question it much."

"He doesn't even know of the Three Peaks?" Shizune asked with a worried voice.

Jiraiya then burst out in a hard laugh. "It's been a long time since I've heard about the Three Peaks…but no, I'm sure he hasn't even heard of it. But I can tell you one thing…from what I've seen and heard about him, even if he doesn't know what the Three Peaks are he already lives his life by them."

Up ahead a certain Uzumaki had been listening intently as he walked with Arashi. "Hey Arashi, it looks like you've got five people now who know about Yondaime-sama…Shizune was just told." He said under his breath to the Himura.

"That's fine with me, I would have told her eventually or Tsunade-baachan would have…what else are they talking about back there?" Arashi asked quietly as yet another balloon shredded in his palm.

"Some stuff about your clan, how does Shizune know about them?"

"She told me that my Kaa-san was her Jonin Sensei when she was a Genin along with the proctor for the preliminaries and finals of the Chunin Exams, I think their names were Hayate and Genma." Arashi could see Naruto's eyebrows go up after hearing that. "She told me after you left that night she told us about Tsunade-baachan's past."

Naruto was just about to bring up the last thing he had heard about the Three Peaks when they rounded a corner on the road and the view of the great gates of Konoha came into view. Whipping his head around he looked back at the three behind him with a gigantic smile on his face. "We're home!!" He shouted at them as he raced back and grabbed the two women by the hand and took off towards the gate, practically dragging the two behind him.

Picking up his pace Jiraiya now strode beside Arashi as they made their way to where Naruto was not jumping up and down while yelling to them once he had realized that he had left them behind. "So do we make him wait or just use Shunshin no jutsu?" The white haired man asked with a laugh. Looking down he saw a slight smirk on Arashi's face as he disappeared from sight, gaining a smirk as well from Jiraiya.

Arashi had just shot off towards Naruto, leaving his Sensei back in the dust. Then he suddenly collided with something big and solid. Looking up he was met with the laughing form of the Gama-Sennin. "E-Ero-Sennin!? How?"

This just caused Jiraiya to burst out laughing even harder. "You really think your that fast don't you? I'm a Sannin, don't take me lightly boy!" Whipping a tear from his eye due to his laughter he turned to see Tsunade snickering as well along with Naruto. He also saw that they were standing at the gate. "But it is nice to be back…right Tsunade?"

"Even though it's been so long since I was here…it is nice to be home." She said with a reminiscing smile as they made their way into Konoha.

"Come on Tsunade-sama, we should probably go and meet with the council first off to get the last things squared away. Even with Jiraiya-sama's message to the village I think they'll have some things to tell you." Shizune said as she held onto TonTon, her declaration only seemed to get a sigh from the Sannin.

"Do we have to right away? I want to go see if Konoha's sake is as good as it used to be…"

"Absolutely not!" Shizune said, cutting Tsunade off and producing a scowl on the Sannin's face.

"I'm already staring to dislike this Hokage thing…" She mumbled under her breath as Jiraiya continued his laughter at her while. After a hard whack to the head that reminded Naruto of a certain pink haired girl, they made their way to Hokage tower to meet with the council. "It's been a while since I've seen this building…" Tsunade said as she looked up at Hokage Tower from the entrance of the imposing structure. "And they even put Arashi's face up there." She then said more to herself as they then made their way up the stairs and into one of the rooms.

"We've been waiting for you Tsunade…" The group heard from in front of them.

"It's been a while Koharu-sensei…" Tsunade said with a smirk, her distain for the woman easily seen.

"Now is not the time for your attempt at pleasantries…there are pressing matters to be dealt with. Thanks to Jiraiya's message a couple days ago we have already alerted the Daimyo and announced the inauguration…we are already preparing the ceremony for tomorrow…"

Tsunade then plopped down of a rather large cushion and groaned at what she was telling her as Homura stood beside his partner. "Daimyo, ceremonies…it's all too troublesome."

"Tsunade!" Homura said with a glare, getting a flinch from Shizune at his growing agitation.

"Yes, I know, this is part of the Hokage's duty, right?" The soon to be Hokage said while she waved her hand in front of her face.

The elderly woman then turned at looked Jiraiya straight in the eye. "That is all we need from you and your team Jiraiya, now please excuse us. We have some things to discuss with Tsunade." Jiraiya simply nodded his head and turned to leave, but the two Genin didn't budge. "That goes for you as well."

"Not until Tsunade-baachan comes with us to the hospital!" Naruto shouted out.

Koharu was about to get the ANBU to remove them from the room when Tsunade spoke up. "It seems I have to do some things here, so I'll be there when I can. Go wait for me there; I'll be there as soon as I can." With a nod the two then left the elders and Tsunade to finish their business.

Once outside and heading down the stairs a light seemed to go off in Naruto's head. "Hey Arashi, do you think she's actually going to come? Or did she just say that to get us out of there?" Arashi then let out a groan that clearly indicated the latter was the most likely. "Baka Baa-chan! Why don't I stay here and wait for her to come out and you can go to the hospital and check on Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke. I'll drag her over there once she gets out!"

"Sounds like a plan." Arashi said before he jumped to the nearest rooftop and shot off in the direction of Konoha Hospital.

Back inside the building, Shizune was beginning to wonder what other matters the elders needed to discuss with Tsunade. "So what else do you need me for, I'm not officially Hokage until tomorrow, right?"

"Yes, that is true. But as you probably have been told, the invasion by Suna and Oto stemmed from and ended the Chunin exams. Due to this, we have not been able to look over the test and decide upon new Chunin. Without a Hokage we are unable to promote Shinobi…" Koharu said calmly.

It was then that Homura held out and handed Tsunade a scroll. "All of the video taken from the final exam and the notes taken on each of the fights have been sealed inside that scroll. We ask you to review the material and chose those worthy of promotion…" He then narrowed his eyes at her as he remembered the people who had been traveling with her. "Don't let your personal feelings cloud your judgment; especially on those two Genin you were traveling with, they are both candidates."

"Is that all? Believe me Homura-sensei; I wouldn't let my personal feelings disrupt what will be my first act as Hokage." Tsunade replied, slightly offended that he believed she would use her position to help those close to her.

"Yes, for now…but as soon as the ceremony is over tomorrow there is a very pressing matter you must attend to…" Koharu said, gaining a raised eyebrow from the soon to be Hokage. "Genma...Aoba…" She then said, and immediately the two Jonin dropped into the room in a kneel. Seeing her team mate before her, Shizune gasped at the suddenness of his entrance. "Spread the word, the Godaime Hokage is here and her inauguration is tomorrow!"

"Hai!" They both said as they disappeared in a puff of smoke.

'Genma-kun…did he even know I was here?' The black haired woman thought as she hugged TonTon tighter while Koharu dismissed her and her master.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Elsewhere in Konoha a certain Hyuuga was standing calmly in the middle of his normal training grounds, with three posts behind him labels one through three. Standing there with his eyes closed he concentrated and with a snap of his eye lids his Byakugan activated. His vision zoomed around him, concentrating he focused on the post with the number two on it and looked beyond it while facing the opposite direction. The farther he looked, more things came into focus until he couldn't see any further. "Direction two…50 meters behind me…seven birds…" Suddenly a movement in the forest, caught the attention of the birds Neji had been watching, making them scatter and fly away. "What is it TenTen?"

Just when he asked that, TenTen popped out of the tree line and into the clearing. "Neji-kun!" Stopping, the bun haired girl tried to catch her breath; obviously she had raced out to him as fast as she could go. "**The** Tsunade-sama has returned!! It's really her, she's really back!! Do you want to come with me to see her?"

"Sorry…not interested." He plainly said as he looked up to the sky, to see the birds that had taken flight when TenTen had come close. 'It was…eight birds…' He thought as the birds flew overhead and towards the village. The Hyuuga simply sighed at the loss of his training components and started to make his way back to the village with TenTen to accompany her to find Tsunade so she could bask in her glory. Neji never could figure out why TenTen had such an odd obsession for the female Sannin. A thought then crossed Neji's mind, and made him begin to think upon it more and more as they walked in silence. 'If Tsunade-sama has returned…then that means Arashi and Naruto have as well…' The thoughts of his humiliating defeat at the blonde's hands still bothered him slightly. 'How did he beat me? I had sealed all his tenketsu, yet he unsealed them somehow and got even more powerful.'

"You're still thinking about how Naruto beat you aren't you Neji-kun?" TenTen said quietly to him. The Hyuuga remained silent to her question, making her look down slightly. "You should talk to me about these things…I'm here for you…I want to help you." Then in a slight movement she laced her finger's with Neji's as they walked, still getting no reaction from Neji. "Have you ever thought loosing to Naruto was a good thing?"

"What?" He said blatantly, almost in a way that would signify that TenTen was in fact crazy.

"Think about it, you've been taken under the Hiashi-sama's wing and are getting personal lessons from him. Not as the Clan Head, but as your uncle. You've also gotten closer to Hinata…and closer to…me"

He didn't say anything, but just looked like he was deep in thought. His eyebrows knitted together in concentration, and then his face relaxed back to its stoic normal features. Then with a squeeze of her hand and a slight smile, she knew that her words had reached him and that he agreed.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Man, my shoulders are stiff now." Tsunade said casually as she and Shizune made their way out of the meeting room and towards the door, all the while carrying the scroll given to her in her coat pocket. "I just want to take a shot of some nice hot sake and relax if I'm going to have to go over what's in this scroll."

"Tsunade-sama…" Shizune said as she was about to remind her master how important her getting to work was, when she was interrupted by a loud voice just as the exited the building and made their way to the stairs.

"Hold it right there Baa-chan!" A tick appeared on Tsunade's forehead as she heard that name for her, there were only two people in the world that would call her that, and by the voice it was absolutely Naruto. "You already have plans to do before you get yourself drunk again!"

With a smirk she decided to mess with the kid a bit. "What was that again?"

Naruto was now bouncing up and down frantically. "We already told you!! You need to come to the hospital to heal Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke!"

"I know, I know…" She then said as she motioned for him to follow her on her way to the hospital.

This was of course before they were met with a pair walking up the stairs. "Oi, it's you Naruto."

Looking up, the blonde was met with the sight of Shikamaru and his father, who wore a simple Jonin flack jacket over his Nara under mesh that Shikamaru wore as well, along with black pants similar to Kakashi's. "Shikamaru?"

"When did you get back? Where's Arashi?"

"Just about an hour ago…Arashi's waiting at the hospital for us. What are you doing here?" Naruto asked the Nara as he stepped next to him.

"I don't know why, but my dad told me to come with him here." Naruto raised an eyebrow to Shikamaru's reason and looked over to his father, who was giving Tsunade a slight bow.

"It's bee a long time, Tsunade-sama." Shikaku said politely and with a smile on his face.

"The Nara clan's kid, huh? If I remember right you had quite a crush on me! How'd that go?" She asked as she laughed t the old memory.

Shikaku could only laugh as well as he then pointed over to Shikamaru. "That's my son right there, Shikamaru."

"Oh that bad, eh? Have you been taking care of the deer well? The deer antlers from your area make good medicine."

After seeing the interaction between his father and the odd woman, Shikamaru leaned in close next to Naruto. "Hey, Naruto…who's that young, cocky woman?"

"She's the new Hokage." Reeling back in shock, Shikamaru gaped at Naruto. "She may look like that, but she's actually an old lady in her fifties!" Naruto then said quietly to the pineapple haired Genin, who gaped even further.

"Well I'll talk to you later Shikaku-san." Tsunade said with a wave as she and Shizune began to make her way down the stairs. "Come on Naruto, don't want to keep Arashi waiting!"

"Ahh! Time to go fix up Kakashi-sensei! Hey Shikamaru, I'll talk to you later! I'll show you my super new move!" Naruto proclaimed and with an upward thrust of his fist he turned and fell in line beside Tsunade and Shizune, leaving the Nara's with an odd look on their faces.

"T-That's the Godaime Hokage?" Shikamaru said more to himself, yet his father still heard him.

Coming up beside his son, the scared man looked out as the new Hokage made her way towards the hospital. "Hey, Shikamaru. She's the strongest and mot beautiful person in Konoha…" Shikamaru just looked at his father like he was crazy, not thinking a woman like that could be that strong, especially one he hadn't heard of before. "Since she is one of the legendary Sannin."

"Huuuh…Sannin eh? A woman being Hokage? Women can be so troublesome…" Shikaku looked confused at his son. "They say whatever they want, they're always together, and I don't know if they like or hate each other." He said as images of a cackling Sakura and Ino spiraled in his head. "Besides, they think that they can control men however they want." Memories of Chouji running around to get Ino something popped up in Shikamaru's mind. "Anyway, they're all too troublesome."

"Shikamaru." Shikaku said as he slung an arm over his much shorter son's shoulder. "Without women, men can not be born. Without women, men become useless." Standing up straight he then turned to enter the building. "No matter what kind of woman she may be, she will show her nice side to the man she loves."

'You hypocrite, you never speak up when you're in front of mom. Whatever, dad.'

"When you're older, you'll understand…Oh, crap! Let's hurry up and finish our business here. If we're late, your mother will scold me again." He said while chuckling as they went inside the building. "Hurry up Shikamaru."

"And then there are men who become useless even with women around." Shikamaru scoffed to himself as he followed his father.

On the other side of Konoha, Sakura once again sat beside Sasuke while he still lay in a coma. News had swept over Konoha when Jiraiya's message had arrived, so to the pin haired girl it was just a waiting game now. But her train of thought was suddenly interrupted by a busty blond woman wearing a green jacket. "I'm coming in." She said, gaining Sakura's full attention.

"Who are you?" She asked as she stood to greet the newcomer. She didn't say anything in return, jut looked down at Sasuke and then over to Kakashi as a black haired woman carrying a pig stepped in as well. 'What a beautiful woman.'

It was then that she was greeted by a well know face. "Sakura-chan!" Naruto practically sang as he and Arashi walked into the room. "Everything will be fine!"

Remembering what Hinata had told her about why the two were gone, Sakura gasped as she looked back to the woman. "She isn't…?"

"Yes, this is Tsunade-baachan. She's the best of the best when it comes to medical ninjutsu! Sasuke will be perfectly fine." Arashi said with a smile while Tsunade bopped him on the head for the name she figured he and Naruto would always call her by before moving over to get a look at the Uchiha.

Looking up for a moment, Tsunade saw there were two flowers sitting in a vase next to the bed. 'Those two flowers…they were brought here on separate days…she must have come here every day, this kid must mean something to her.'

"Gai-sensei and Hinata told me about you…please help Sasuke-kun!" She said in a bow to the older woman.

"Yeah, leave it to me." Turning her attention back to the boy, she gave him a general look over and read his charts. Placing her now glowing green hand over Sasuke's left arm she went to work repairing the bad break he had suffered at the hands of his older brother. After she was done there she moved her hand up to his head. Placing it atop his forehead she scanned for the problem and knitted her brow in concentration as she worked. Letting her hand fade back to normal she stood up straight and sighed. "I'm sorry…I healed his arm back to 100 percent. But…he's taken some extreme psychological trauma; the brain is a very tricky thing to fix. He still needs some time for himself to heal mentally; physically he's now in perfect order. But he's still a wreck in his mind, I could wake him up now…but he wouldn't be the person you know." She said with her head lowered a bit.

"I...I understand…thank you for all you've done." Sakura said in a very discouraged voice.

She then turned to leave, but was stopped by a pair of hands turning her back to look at Tsunade's face. "He'll recover, I promise you as the Godaime Hokage…you have my word he'll recover."

"G-Godaime Hokage!?" Sakura said in shock, looking over to Naruto and Arashi she was only me with nods. "I understand, thank you…Hokage-sama." Sakura said in a more upbeat voice, affirmed that her Sasuke would be back to normal. She had already waited almost two months, what was a little more time?

After the Haruno had left the room, Arashi and Naruto practically dragged Tsunade over to where Kakashi lay. After another session of her glowing green hand, the silver haired man slowly sat up in his bed. Getting to a sitting position he had an exhausted and dreary look on his face. "Rin…" He said inaudibly before he looked around the room. "Tsunade-sama?!"

"It's been too long Hatake." She said before looking over his general condition. "How pathetic…I heard you got beat up by some punks. How the mighty have fallen, I thought you were supposed to be a genius…" Tsunade retorted in a condescending tone.

"H-Hai…I'm sorry." He said, ashamed in front of the Sannin and his students. "I was careless…" But looking over to the seat next to his bed, a small smile appeared under his mask as he saw several light purple hairs on it.

"All right, Kakashi-sensei is all better!" Naruto proclaimed, getting a flinch from Kakashi at his sudden loud outburst. "Oh, sorry." He said while laughing to himself."

While this was all going on, Shizune stepped next to her master and whispered something in her ear. "Tsunade-sama, don't you think you should get started on that scroll?"

With a glare at the prospect of work she began to grumble, but then she smiled subtly as she remembered that Naruto and Arashi were candidates for Chunin. "Naruto…Arashi!" She said, getting the boy's attention. "Don't you have things you wanted to do when you got back?" The Sannin said, remarking on some tidbits she had overheard on their way back to Konoha.

Hitting his head at him forgetting what he wanted to do Naruto then turned and ran out of the room with a wave and a smile. "Where's he going?" Kakashi asked as he slid himself to the side of the bed and wearily stood up.

"He's wanted to get some ramen with Iruka-sensei for quite a while now." Arashi then smiled big as he turned to leave as well, only to be stopped by Kakashi's light laugh.

"Going to see Hinata?" An even wider smile was his only answer as the Himura ducked out to find the one person on his mind. Looking around, Kakashi wondered where the last person is. "Where's Jiraiya-sama?"

"Knowing that old pervert, he's most likely peeping again." Tsunade sighed before she took on a serious look. "Know I need to get some business done…I've been told that you not only have trained Arashi and Naruto, but also that kid behind us. Am I correct?" The silver haired man nodded to her question. "Now I need to get your assessment of their skills and abilities…I have to review the Chunin exams and I need to know everything about those involved."

"Well…I wasn't present for Arashi and Naruto's matches so I couldn't tell you about that. Shouldn't there be tapes or notes on that?" Hearing what he had to say Tsunade then huffed in disappointment, having to actually watch the tapes and do the work instead of using Kakashi's eye witness account.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After dropping in at the Academy to snag Iruka for a trip to Ichiraku's he was now taping his foot impatiently as he waited for the Chunin to make it to his favorite restaurant. "Oi, Naruto!"

"You're late, Iruka-sensei!!" Naruto then burst out at his former teacher.

"Sorry, sorry…I've been really bust with teaching and other things." Getting and odd look from one of his favorite students Iruka decided to explain further. "There's been a lot to do with the Godaime Hokage's inauguration tomorrow. Also due to the losses in the invasion I've had to do a little in Hokage Tower dealing with clients who are waiting for the Hokage to be initiated for their missions to be filled."

"Yeah, yeah…let's eat!" Naruto said as he stepped into the ramen shop and was bombarded with the familiar smells.

"Naruto! You've been gone quite a while! I was beginning to go broke!" Teuchi said as he chuckled. "The usual?" Getting a nod from both of his customers he went to work making their now mentally engraved orders. After a couple minutes his placed two bowls before them. "Here you go!"

"Itadakimasu!" The blond said as he began slurping up the magical food before him. While he was doing this Iruka couldn't help but chuckle at the boy.

"You've grown so much since you passed the Academy…but there are some things that will never change." He said as he adjusted his forehead protector.

"You think so?" Naruto asked happily after he slurped down the rest of his ramen. "I picked this one out because it suits me perfectly, don't you think!?"

'Baka…they were all the same!' He thought as he chuckled at his former student. "What are you talking about, you're not there yet. After all you're still a Genin, you have to work hard!" Naruto puffed our his cheeks and scowled at Iruka, seeing this he smiled and figured his rank was a sore spot in Naruto's mind. "You know Naruto…this is a difficult time in Konoha." A cocked eyebrow from the boy was all the teacher needed to continue. "With Sandaime-sama and many other talented shinobi gone, Konoha's forces have been weakened by about half. But we still have to complete out missions."

"Why not refuse missions till we get back on our feet?"

"That's the last thing we would want to do! It's why I'm being spread out so much and having to make sure a high profile client is satisfied with waiting till the Godaime Hokage in instated so his can request a mission. If we were to reject missions, then other countries will find out just how weakened we are…and another invasion wouldn't be too far around the corner. Iwa has had a grudge against Konoha since your fa…" Iruka then caught himself and burst out into a nervous laugh, rubbing his neck feverously. "Well…for a long time, and they would jump at the chance to take us over.

"Naruto just looked at Iruka with a questioning glare, then pushing the thought to the back of his mind he sighed. "It sounds too troublesome to me."

Iruka then laughed at the boy's choice of words. "Well then, I didn't know Shikamaru was a blond! Anyway, even you aren't exempt from this need of Shinobi. That guy I've been waiting on has some fixation on Arashi being in his mission, so I think you'd be included as well…speaking of Arashi." Iruka said looking around. "Where is he? I would have figured he'd be up for some ramen, or maybe some sushi…but he's not anywhere."

His answer was a light laugh from Naruto. "Iruka-sensei, you would think you'd know a little more about your students! Where do you think he is!?"

Iruka then rolled his eyes at his blindness. "Of course…Hinata!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It had been a normal day for the most part in the Hyuuga household, they had been preparing like everyone else for the arrival of the new Hokage. Yet there was also certain things going on that were far different than everyone else in Konoha. One could be that a couple members of the family were more excited about a certain Himura's arrival instead of the Sannin's. Or it could have been the widely discussed bout between two Hyuuga that had been the gossip of the household for many days. Several days ago, while still having her head filled with the excitement of being named the heir, Hanabi had challenged her sister to a battle. This of course in the minds of most of the clan was simply a gesture to show her superiority in their minds, many had frowned upon Hiashi for going against Hyuuga tradition and naming his second born child as heir. But of course the information regarding the specifics to Hanabi's appointment were as of yet a private matter and not open to public discussion; even between council members.

At the moment the entire Hyuuga compound was empty, save for one area. Every member of each House was currently in the courtyard of the estate to watch the battle between siblings. Hanabi stood before her sister with a smug look on her face and her arms crossed while wearing her traditional Hyuuga training suit. "You ready for this Nee-chan?"

Hinata at first didn't respond, but stood firm in front of her sister with her eyes shut and her face turned towards the sky. Now opening her eyes they were pure white with her veins on the outside of her eyes bulging out, her Byakugan active and looking intent on showing her sister their determination. "Are _you _ready?" She said as she shifted her stance and got into her Juuken stance, the sleeves of her jacket blowing in the wind.

Quickly Hanabi activated the pride of the Hyuuga clan and engaged her sister in their family's taijutsu. The spectators watched as the two continued battling at increasing speeds, some of the less experienced members of the family even had to activate their Byakugan to even see the strikes going back and forth. But despite the ferocity of Hanabi's attacks they were always gracefully blocked and countered by her older sister. Jumping back from the initial battle areas Hanabi glared hard at Hinata as she simply stood there in her Juuken stance with a look of determination.

The newly named heir could feel some spots on her tingling, a sure sign of a few closed tenketsu. 'Damn her, I knew she had gotten stronger…but I didn't think this strong!' With a flip of her hand she shot out several shuriken she had been hiding under her belt, several spectators frowned at the dirty move. This was supposed to be a Hyuuga fight, and a traditional Hyuuga fight was one that consisted of Juuken and no weapons.

Seeing the blades coming at her fast, Hinata didn't have any time to be disappointed in her sister before they would shred into her. So she pulled her arms to one side of her and focused her chakra evenly, many people watching looked wide eyes at her, not knowing she knew that technique. Hanabi was one of these people, she hadn't paid any attention her Hinata's and Neji's training together so she was oblivious to her skills. "Kaiten!" The girl said as she spun like a top as a large amount of chakra was spun around her, deflecting the shuriken and leaving a clean spiral crater in the ground the size of the spinning blue shield. 'Just a little bit longer…I'll make Arashi-kun proud!' Hanabi snarled in frustration before she then smirked and prepared herself to use her trump card. Shifting her weight into the stance needed, her sister looked at her seriously once she recognized the stance. "So you're going to use that? T-Then I'll have to show you s-something I've c-created from being around A-Arashi-kun." Hinata said as she put her hands into a single hand sign before getting back into her Juuken stance. At first Hanabi didn't see any difference, but that was until Hinata curled her fingers up so that now only her index and middle fingers were extended on each hand. Distinctive sparks could be seen popping off the girl's fingers with a slight crackle. "Raijuuken!"

"It'll take a bit more than some sparks to stop this!" She said as a trigram encircled them both, with Hanabi at the middle of it. "Hakke Sanjuuni Sho!" She yelled as she started flinging attacks at her sister. "Two palms…" Hinata easily and fluidly dodged them like it was nothing. "Four palms…" Once more her older sister seemed to weave in and out of the attacks, causing Hanabi to glare in frustration as she continued. "Eight palms…!" The elder daughter seemed to defy Hanabi's logic by not taking a single blow, but the girl was also feeling slight pricks popping on her body that were followed by an off numbing feeling. "Sixteen palms!!" She smirked as she felt several of the hits actually hit their targets, ignoring the growing numbness in her arms. "THIRTY TWO PALMS!!!" She screamed as she finished her attack.

Everyone gasped in shock at what they saw, all except for an uninvited quest on the rooftops. Hinata had caught her sister's final attack and was now gripping Hanabi's right arm, with Hinata's left fingers extended mere inches in front of Hanabi's heart. The small sparks of lightning still coming out of them, Hanabi had been beaten in classical Hyuuga style. But that wasn't all, letting go of her sister's arm the affect of Hinata's variation of Juuken took its toll. The growing numbness in Hanabi had suddenly grown and now the Heir was standing with her arms limply hanging at her side. Turning around with a smile, Hinata began to walk away just as Hanabi felt the blows to her legs she had sustained and fell to the ground. "How did you do that!? How did you dodge all of my blows and still hit me!?!" Hanabi roared from her paralyzed like state.

"The Hakke Sanjuuni Sho is an attack most Hyuuga learn first, before they ascend to the harder attacks of our family. I've know that attack for a couple years now, and I know where the attacks are coming from. So it was simple to dodge and attack against it, I'm sorry Nee-chan but it was something you needed to learn."

"What? Learn what?" Hinata was at the moment looking at her father, who was smiling widely. But she saw that it wasn't at her or Hanabi, but rather up on the roof behind her.

"Humility!" A voice behind Hinata said in the direction her father had been looking. Whipping herself around at the sound of the familiar voice she looked up at the figure that seemed to be silhouetted against the sun. With a chuckle he jumped down from the rooftop and into the courtyard with a grin from ear to ear on his face.

Tears began to well up in Hinata's eyes as she looked upon the blond before her. "A-A -Arashi-kun!!"

"I've been gone a while, I'm sorry Hina-chan…" The boy said as he began to walk toward her, passing the still grumbling Hanabi and making his way to her.

When he called her Hina-chan she knew, she knew it wasn't an illusion or genjutsu or someone using Henge. Not like when Kiba had tried to impersonate Arashi a couple weeks back and ended up on the receiving end of one of Sakura's fists. "Arashi-kun!!" She practically yelled as she threw her arms around him and held tight, wetting his shoulder with tears of joy. "You're b-back, you're finally back…" Her words were then silenced as his lips claimed hers in a passionate kiss that made it seem as though people were cheering for her. After a couple seconds she realized that a few people WERE cheering for her, breaking the lip lock she nervously turned to see the full Hyuuga family still standing there watching her, some laughing, some cheering, some women with hearts in their eyes at the romanticism of it, and a couple of the older ones frowning. She instantly shot up to a color red that she hadn't used in several months, and promptly fainted while still in Arashi's arms.

"That is all, the match is over. You all have things that need to be done." Hiashi said as the crowd dispersed, leaving only him, his daughters, Neji, and Arashi. Who by now had a frantic look on his face as Hiashi began to walk towards him. "Some things really don't change…" He said calmly in reference to Hinata's fits of fainting.

With everyone gone it was just a waiting game for Hinata to wake up. While this happened Hiashi looked over the son of his friend proudly, even he had heard the stories circulating on how he and Naruto had convinced Tsunade to return to the village to be Hokage. After a couple minutes, Hinata's eyes fluttered open to see her father looking down at her along with Arashi. She instantly jumped up and into his arms again. "It wasn't a dream!"

After Hinata had let go of his neck, the Himura turned and bowed to Hiashi. "Could I take Hina-chan out for a bit Hiashi-sama?"

"I approve." He said calmly while he and Neji picked up Hanabi and took her back inside to possibly divert an outburst at Arashi. "Have her back by 10."

"Of course Hiashi-sama!" He then turned and grabbed onto his girlfriend's hand. "Let's go Hina-chan. There's something we need to do."

Hiashi watched as the two calmly walked hand in hand out of the compound and off to some destination. If someone had told him that his and Kenshi's children would be dating and arranged to be married when he was still on the team with her, he probably would have laughed in their face. But now, he couldn't see those two any other way.

After a while Arashi seemed to have a set place in mind and was steering towards it, of course Hinata had no clue what they were doing. "A-Arashi-kun…w-where are we going?"

The sun had begun to set and they were already on the outskirts of town, leading towards their first training ground. "We're going to pay out respects to Oji-san…we both didn't attend his funeral. So this is the least we can do." Hinata could see in his eyes that Sandaime's death still was on his mind and he hadn't fully gotten over it. She just smiled at his compassion for the old man and hugged his arm as they walked, gaining a soft kiss to the top of her head from Arashi.

Upon arriving at the Memorial Stone they were surprised to see Konohamaru kneeling before it with his head downcast and a sad look on his face. "Konohamaru? What are you doing here?"

"Oh, Arashi-niisan…I'm just…never mind." He said half heartedly, seeing the distress in the boy Hinata went over and put a caring had on his shoulder. "It's just…soon people will stop calling me the young master. I'm just going to be plain old normal Konohamaru."

"What's wrong with that? I thought you hated being called that, or that's at least what Naruto told me."

"It's not that…everyone will forget Gramps. People will forget about how wonderful a ninja he was and shelve him away like an old book! The new Hokage will erase everyone's memories of Gramps…" He said but was cut off as Arashi now held the boy by his collar, raising him off the ground with an angry look in his eyes.

Hinata decided it was probably best that Arashi deal with the youngster. "You idiot!! Do you really think people will forget Oji-san!? I know I'll never forget him and neither will Naruto or Hina-chan. He did too much for this village to be forgotten! What about your uncle? Do you think he'll forget his father? No, I don't know anyone who would forget Oji-san!" Raising his fist he connected with Konohamaru's gut and let him fall to the ground. "And here I thought you might have grown up a little…no one will forget Oji-san because he lives on in each of us…" Kneeling down to Konohamaru's level he touched his chest and then did the same with the boy. "He lives in there and has passed on his Will of Fire to us all. Now live to make him proud the way I know he would have wanted." Getting up he and Hinata bowed before the memorial stone and then turned and made their way up to their most memorable place as the Sun sank below the horizon.

Now the two stood hand in hand as they looked out over the village from atop Sandaime's head as it bathed in the starlight. "It's beautiful…" Arashi said softly with a smile on his face. "One day I'll have my face up here too Hina-chan…" With a tug at her hand the two walked over to a conveniently placed bench that still allowed them to take in the breath taking view from atop the monument.

Sitting down Arashi put his arm around Hinata as she nuzzled her head onto his shoulder. As much as she was enjoying the time with Arashi after his extended mission, she still had a part of her that was frightened silly. Just keeping the knowledge of the marriage just made her want to explode. The remote chance that he wouldn't want it, or that he wasn't ready for a commitment of that level seemed to be tearing her apart.

Her thoughts were stopped momentarily by her love's voice. "Are you cold Hina-chan? You're trembling…" She hadn't realized that she was doing that and blushed slightly as Arashi pulled her tighter, enveloping them in the warmth of their bodies. "That day is still fresh in my mind Hina-chan…it started as the worst day of my life and turned out to be one of the best…" Arashi said, gaining a smile from Hinata as she thought back to the memory of h they had professed their feelings to each other. She was then surprised as she found herself in a loving kiss form her blond boyfriend. Releasing the kiss, Hinata seemed to pull herself even closer to Arashi. "You really don't know how much you helped me out that day…I had never had to experience something like that, my whole clan was gone the day I was born, so I can't really feel that bad about them…I mean I never knew them."

"B-But at l-least you k-know w-who they w-were…Otou-san h-has said a couple things about your parents to me. They w-were good people…like you. Haven't you even w-wanted to know about them?" She asked caringly.

"I've found out some things about them, Shizune-neechan was actually Kaa-san's Genin student like we are with Kakashi-sensei." He was met with a raised eyebrow from Hinata at Shizune's name. "Oh, she's Tsunade-baachan's assistant and a very good medical ninja."

The Hyuuga could tell that Arashi desperately wanted to know more about his clan and family, but at the same time didn't want to jeopardize the one he had grown up with…Naruto. She could see that he didn't want to get too much into it so that Naruto would feel left of due to his lack of any family knowledge. "Anou…w-who do you think are N-Naruto-kun's parents?"

Arashi really hadn't ever thought about that, and also the sound of a certain Hokage almost chocking after hearing Hinata's question made Arashi want to find out for Naruto's sake. "I don't have the slightest idea…but I want to find out…for Naruto."

The two continued to look out over the village, simply content to be in each other's arms. Their bliss and happiness soon turned into heavy eyelids as the day's activities caught up to them and they willingly fell asleep in each other's arms for the first time and were cast off to dreams filled with each other.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ahhh…this is too much to do on my first day back here! I'm not even the Hokage yet!" Tsunade said, complaining to herself. He day had been full of activity once her little time in the hospital, at first she had figured that she could go out and get the work done quickly at her favorite bar n Konoha so that she could go out drinking later in the night. These plans were ruined for her firstly because Shizune had insisted that she accompany her master for her evaluations, and secondly because of the discovery that that particular bad had closed down a decade ago.

"Tsunade-sama, you need to get this done! Besides, is the Dango shop that bad? I think their tea is good." Shizune said as she took a sip of her tea with a smile.

"You've gotten really strict all of a sudden Shizune…" Tsunade said under her breath as she flipped open yet another notebook with notes from the finals. "Hmm…Neji Hyuuga…" She said as she read the several pages on his battle with Naruto, she had already read the one focusing on Naruto and his action is respect to what happened but now she was focusing on Neji's side.

"What do you think of that one Tsunade-sama? His abilities are quite impressive, they say he's the first Hyuuga prodigy to come from the Branch family…"

"His abilities are indeed good…but that arrogance and mislead pride. If he acted like that on a mission he'd get everyone killed. He grossly underestimated Naruto and it lead to his loss." She then shook her head disappointedly. "No, he just doesn't make it."

"What about this one?" The black haired woman asked as she handed Tsunade Shino's file.

The Sannin sighed loudly again after looking it over. "He didn't even get to fight, and with no tapes on the preliminaries there's nothing we can do." She then leaned back in the booth she was sitting at and groaned. "I think I'm done, I've looked it over enough…I've made my decision. At least I won't get any arguments from Homura and Koharu, they came to the same conclusion as I did." She then got up after slapping some money down on the table. "I'm tired…I'm heading back Shizune, stay if you want but I have a big day tomorrow." She said as she dragged herself out of the shop looking exhausted and made her way back to her new home.

After sealing all of the material back inside the scroll she decide to leave as well, but getting up she was stopped by a small chuckle coming from the booth behind where Tsunade as been. "I hope she made the right decisions…" He said plainly as he ran a hand through his hair. It looked kind of familiar to Shizune, it looked almost identical to Kabuto's hair style but he wasn't wearing a head band and instead on his bangs falling over in the part Kabuto had. It was instead only one side that fell down and over his forehead, where the left bang should have fallen it instead swept back with the rest of his hair into a spiky ponytail held together low on his head and only extended to about his shoulders. The black haired man stood up and smoothed out his dark blue traditional robe with its golden trim and smirked to Shizune. "I look forward to my meeting with Hokage-sama tomorrow after the ceremony."

Looking at the small mole under his left eye, Shizune remembered what they had been told during their meeting. "So you're the high profile client?" She asked as he simply walked past her and out of the Dango shop, looking up at the night sky.

"Yes, and make sure that Team 7 is available for my mission…it wasn't only Hokage-sama I was waiting for…" He said as he then strolled down the street, leaving Shizune feeling rather odd after hearing that he had been requesting Naruto and Arashi's squad specifically, and also when she saw the emblem stitched in gold on the back of his robe.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For the first night in quite a while Naruto had gotten a wonderful night sleep, and waking up early that morning he was energized and looking forward to the ceremony that was to happen in a couple hours. After slurping down three cups of ramen he happily bounded out of his apartment and made his way down to Arashi's door. After waiting a couple minutes for him to come to the door he blond got impatient and used his key to get into the Himura's apartment. But upon entering he was surprised to see that no one was there. "Now where could that baka be…I'll go ask Hinata-chan where he went after they spent their time together yesterday!" He said to himself as he locked the door back up and made his way to the Hyuuga compound.

Upon reaching the imposing doors, Naruto knocked loudly and was soon face to face with the person he had battled not too long ago. "Oh, good morning Naruto-san. You have no doubt come looking for Hinata-sama, am I correct in my assumption?"

"Yeah, but listen Neji…no hard feelings about our fight, right? You're a good guy, maybe a bit arrogant, but overall a good guy."

"The only hard feelings are my will to fight you once more one day and avenge my past lose." He said stoically as he normally did. "But I regret to say that Hinata-sama did not return last night from her time out with Arashi-san…he's furious." He then let a small smirk come across his face. "They're on top of Sandaime-sama's head…I advise you get to them before he does."

Naruto's face light up in fright at the thought of Hiashi's rage coming down upon Arashi, and ran off in the direction of the Hokage Monument. "Good job Neji, that'll give those two a little scare so they don't do this again…" A deep voice said from behind Neji as Hiashi stepped out with a frown on his face.

"But uncle, they're only sleeping on a bench. There is no harm in that is there? They are betrothed…" Neji said trying to at least defend his cousin from future incidents.

"Yes…but where did you learn that?" That is supposed to be a secret between myself and my daughters." The Hyuuga asked with a slightly angry look on his face.

"Hinata-sama told me about the arrangement." He said as the two went back into the compound to get ready for the ceremony at the center of the village.

Once atop the monument Naruto instantly saw the two forms of his friends fast asleep on the bench with Hinata's head leaning against Arashi's shoulder and his head leaning on top of her's. Both of them had a smile on their face that made even Naruto jealous of their bond. But this was momentary before his prankster heart took over his thoughts. "Suiton: Mizu Himatsu no Jutsu…" Naruto said very quietly as not to wake the sleeping couple. Now above their heads a small globule of water formed and slowly grew bigger and bigger until it was about the size of a head. Then suddenly it fell from the air and onto the still sleeping forms of Hinata and Arashi, resulting in them jolting up and letting out a small scream at the sudden awakening and coldness of the water.

"Narutooooo!!!!" Arashi yelled, now thoroughly soaked from head to toe. And so began the mad screaming chase that sped around on top of the heads of the Hokage, Hinata could only laugh as Naruto cracked up hysterically. "Just wait till I catch you…I'm going to break your damn arm fox boy!!"

After Arashi had calmed down and found he was dry from running around at the speeds they were moving at. "It's just some water A-Arashi-kun…" Hinata said quietly, still incredibly embarrassed that she had slept at Arashi's side like she had. "Isn't the c-ceremony soon?"

"Oh!" Naruto suddenly blurted out. "Oh, sorry…" He then said after realizing the volume of his outburst. He then began rubbing his hands together with a sly smile. "We still have some time…how about a little fun…?"

Arashi light up at the prospect of a little fun before going to Tsunade's ceremony, and when Naruto made the face he was making it was usually a lot of fun. "Don't you want to see…it?" This resulted in odd looks from his two team mates. "Kakashi-sensei's true face!!"

Naruto sat there giggling to himself as he expected the two to instantly jump on his quest to see Kakashi's face, but he didn't expect what actually happened. "Nah, not interested." Arashi said as he waved off the idea and started to make his way towards the stairs.

"NANI!!!"

"We already know what it looks like baka." He said as Naruto then seemed to turn to stone from the shock. Reaching up he then pointed to his eyes. "We've got the Byakugan remember…we saw a while ago…it was rather interesting…" He said with a smirk as he called for Hinata and the two made their way down from the monument at towards the growing crowd in front of Hokage Tower, leaving a still frozen in shock Naruto atop Sandaime's head.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tsunade now stood overlooking the crown gathered at the bottom of the building she was on. "They really seem to like her…" Jiraiya said more to himself, gaining a grunt of approval from the two elders who stood beside the white haired Sannin.

"You did a good job finding her Jiraiya." Homura said before everything was drowned out as Tsunade stepped up to the railing of the building while wearing the traditional Hokage hat.

With a smirk she dramatically pulled it from her head and shouted to the crown. "From this day forward I govern Konoha!! I am the Godaime Hokage!!!!" Which in response she got thunderous applause and cheers from the villagers and Shinobi alike, all cheering for their new leader from below. With her ascension to Hokage now official she placed the hat back on her head and made her way back to her office with a smile. Stopping next to Jiraiya she slipped him a note and then leaned in to say something to him. "Go get the people on this list and bring them to my office as soon as possible, I apparently have a big meeting to attend…"

About fifteen minutes later Shikamaru had found himself standing before the new Hokage's empty desk. He had planned on having a nice and lazy day before the Sannin Jiraiya had appeared next to him and said that the Hokage needed his presence ASAP. 'This is so troublesome…why does she need me of all people.' His groan soon turned into a raised eyebrow as Arashi entered the room with an equally confused look on his face. "Oi, Arashi. You have any clue what this is about?"

Shaking his head, the Himura looked just as confused as Shikamaru did. "I don't know, what does Tsunade-baachan want with the two of us?" Sighing he figured he would get his answer soon enough.

Sure enough, within two minutes Tsunade entered into the room and took a seat behind her large desk with a smirk and then laced her hands together under her chin as she looked at the two. "Do you know why I've asked for the two of you right now?" She said, breaking the tense silence that had taken over the room. In response the two simply shook their heads in a definite no motion. "When I first got back to the village I was presented with a scroll, inside that scroll was all of the information concerning the latest Chunin Exams. There were many notes in it on every one who fought in the finals and video on it as well. Some people have said that due to the interruption of the last stage of the exam that the whole thing should be canceled. But apparently Sandaime Hokage-sama was very impressed with both of your fight, the judges, and the village Elders also agree." She then took out two scrolls and wrote something on each. "So from this day on…you both are Chunin!" She said as she tossed them their scrolls of promotion.

"What about Naruto?" Arashi then blurted out. "Doesn't your bet with him count towards this?"

"No, this only deals with the exam…I'm sorry Arashi." The Hokage said before she then also tossed them a pair of flack jackets. Shikamaru simply slipped his on over his vest and undershirt and tucked the scroll into one of its many pockets and strolled out of the office with a lazy wave. "Well…put it on Arashi. You've earned it."

Arashi just held up the green padded vest in front of him and frowned at it. "Sorry Baa-chan…" Tsunade's eyebrow raised at his tone, wondering what he was talking about. "But I like my jacket better…" Tsunade then suddenly fell out of her chair, getting back up she then took on a serious look.

"Arashi, this is probably early considering that we just got back…but a high profile client has apparently been waiting in Konoha since the invasion for his mission to be filled. Also he has specifically asked for Team 7 to be the ones to carry out this mission, with you being a necessity for the mission..." Arashi looked confused, why would someone ask for him to carry out a mission for them when he was a Genin at the time. "Now that you are Chunin, this will be your first mission as a squad leader."

"So is Kakashi-sensei coming along as well?"

"No…he's still not in a condition to go out of the village let a lone carry out a mission. But in the time I've had to look over your team information aside from what I already know about you and Naruto, I've found a temporary replacement for him on this mission." Arashi then groaned at his assumption of who would be accompanying them. "And no, it's not Jiraiya, he left to go look for some information right after he went and got out and Shikamaru for me. But we need to go into the other room, Naruto and Hinata should be in there, we'll discuss the mission specifics there." Putting his new scroll into his back hip pack and slinging the flack jacket over his right shoulder he followed the Hokage into the mission room.

After going into the next room Arashi was brought back to the last time he had been in there for their first C-rank mission to the Land of Wave. Looking up he saw Naruto looking furious at the jacket he had slung over his shoulder. "You got promoted!?!?!" He roared in anger before crossing his arms ad pouting to himself. "Well at least I can do the Rasengan…" He said quietly before bursting out again at his friend. "I'll catch up just you watch! Then I'll beat you to Jonin and finally I'll become Hokage!!!"

"C-Congratulation Arashi-kun…" Hinata said meekly, the view of Arashi holding onto the vest over his shoulder was incredibly attractive to the Hyuuga.

"Thanks Hina-chan." He said as he smiled and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek, getting a raised eyebrow from the Hokage. "Okay Baa-chan, what's the mission and who else is coming?"

He was then quickly silenced as a person in a Jonin uniform appeared next to them, a katana strapped to his back, his brown hair poking out of the dark blue bandana with the Konoha emblem on it, and with bags under his eyes. "I'll be accompanying you three…" He said while going though a couple coughs.

"Hayate-san?" Naruto said in disbelief.

"That's Hayate-sensei now kid." He then turned to Arashi and gave him a smile. "It's an honor to be with my Sensei's son on his first mission as a Chunin…Kenshi-sensei would be proud of you Arashi." He managed to say without any coughing interruptions. "I'll also be showing you guys some new stuff during this mission…" He said with a smile before the door behind them was heard opening.

"So…we meet at last…" The man in a blue robe trimmed by gold said in an almost sarcastic tone. "Konoha no Kogane Urufu!"

"Gold Wolf?" He then said questioningly before turning to Tsunade.

"It's the name he's been referring to you by, I guess it's like Kakashi's title of Copy Ninja…it's already been attached to your file…" The man then walked calmly up next to the table where Tsunade sat with a lofty look on his face. "Let me introduce you all to Getsurei Raikou…the son of the Daimyo of the Land of Lightning…you're mission is to accompany him back to his home and protect his life until his 21st birthday in three weeks…when he'll become the new Daimyo…this is a B-Rank mission, not make your preparations and meet at the village's gates in half an hour!" She said dramatically as the four ninjas then turned and made their way out of the building and to their homes to pack for the mission.

"Yosh!! Our first mission with the three of us since the mission to Wave!" Naruto practically sang as the group gathered before the massive gates.

"Shut up you idiot, I've hired you to protect me. Not dumb me down with your idiocy, now let's get going. It's a two week journey back to my home and I don't intend on letting you crazy Shinobi drag me along as you jump through the trees, we'll be walking." Naruto could already tell he wasn't going to like this guy and just glared him down as the group of five set off for the Land of Lightning.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**The Lightning Daimyo arc finally starts! What part does Zankoji and the one he called Master have to do with Getsurei? What made this member of royalty assure that Arashi was the one on this mission? What kinds of training will Hayate put the group through, and will any knowledge from his Sensei be passed to Team 7? Find out next chapter.**

**Okay the new arc is finally upon us. I'd like to thank Raiton 77 for Getsurei's name. I've been rally really busy at work lately so that is why this is out sort of late. I'll be taking my state certification sometime soon so I'll be getting more money, which is always a good thing! Anyway, I'll have more free time coming up soon so the next chapter shouldn't be too long of a wait.**

**I hope everyone likes this chapter and reviews!! And remember…I love reviews and love people who review and do so a lot! So go ahead and re-read the story and review every chapter!! You'll be my new favorite person!!**

**(EDIT) Okay I'm just going to put down that so far I've only gotten 4 reviews on this chapter in the two days its been up. So I'm not even going to start the new chapter until I get at least 12 reviews. SO review or it wil just take longer for chapter 29 to come out. Even if I have over the 12 you should still review, the more I get the shorter it takes to come out.**

**Jutsu List:**

**Hakke Sanjuuni Sho – Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms**

**Raijuuken – Gentle Lightning Fist**

**Suiton: Mizu Himatsu no Jutsu – Suiton: Water Splash no Jutsu**


	29. The Mission Begins

**Review Reply:**

**Artemis-kibasgirlfriend:** Well Sasame makes her return in this chapter, there will be more of her to come so don't fret.

**SwordofMagus: **No, no Zankoji last chapter…he's in this one though. Him and his sadistic glory!

**NarutoFanBoy4Life:** Well you're secret wait is all over because chapter 29 IS HERE!!! Also the fact of Naruto's Geninness hasn't been addressed in Shippuden I'll have to think of what to do with it when I get there.

**CelticHero:** n I didn't mention Sasame for a reason, it's the first scene in this chapter so read on and keep reviewing!!!!

**Fefisgbf13:** Whoa, I don't remember saying anything about Kumo.

**Nina Natsu:** Actually my keyboard sucks and it doesn't put the letters down sometimes so I really have to do a good job when I edit it, since I don't have a beta I have to do it myself.

**Digitaldestiny360:** Yeah I thought my take on Naruto's want to see Kakashi's face would be quite funny. I mean with two people who have Byakugan, you'd think that they'd get curious and take a look!

**Deadly spike:** Yes, yay for swords indeed!

**Cloudfightback:** Get your arm better and get your writing done! I want to get a crack at it!

**Chosha Kurenai:** Yeah I knew that Ookami means wolf, and that's factored into his Ookami Gatsuuga. But I used the other way of saying it for his Ninja name. Also, no…Arashi has no clue that he's engaged.

**Royal Snaza:** Okay, thanks it should show up soon. Get on AIM and we can discuss it further. I have some stuff on it I want to talk to you about.

**The Elven Spear:** Haha, no…it eventually dos, haha.

**Trueswipe: ** That was a goof on my part, this is the new chapter. Yes this is a new original arc. The Rai Daimyo Arc.

**Raiton77:** All your questions shall be answered!!!

**Static44:** YAY!! You're back! What jutsu were you talking about in your last review?

**VioletSnow:** Well Zankoji isn't going to strike in this chapter.

**Animeskid:** It was really that funny? What parts did you find so funny?

**RasenganRendan01:** Oh, well you're person will either be next chapter or the one after it.

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto, just Arashi and any other OC that appear.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"BOOOM!!!" Was the sound Tsunade heard as her door was suddenly kicked down and a very pissed off red headed girl was standing in the door way. Her hair poking out of a hole in the top of her black beanie in a ponytail, a sleeveless light purple jacket, dark brown shorts, and a black cloth around both of her forearms much like how Sasuke used to have around his before he changed to his newest outfit. With a furious look in her eyes the girl stormed over before the Hokage's desk and slammed her palms down on it and looked Tsunade right in the eye. "You BITCH!!!"

Suddenly she felt two long blades resting against her neck, shakily looking to her side she realized that she was now surrounded by half a dozen ANBU and two of them were in a position to end her life with a mere flick of their wrists. "It's okay, I'll handle this." Tsunade said dismissingly, the ANBU then disappeared just as suddenly as they had appeared. Now once again alone in the office Tsunade looked intently at the girl. "And who might you be? And what have I ever done to you?"

"I'm Sasame Fuuma…Naruto-kun's girlfriend!!" It was that title that made Tsunade realized what the girl was upset about. "You send my Naruto-kun off on another mission the day after he gets back from an extended one!!! That's what you've done to me! I hadn't even seen him yet and you send him off again for who knows how long!!" She yelled before she quickly held her hands before her heart and whimpered slightly. "I've missed him so much…when our clan moved here I thought I could spend more time with Naruto-kun…but now…it's just like how it used to be, I'm all alone waiting for a chance to see him again…" Tsunade just watched the girl as her shoulders began to tremble and a few tears escaped from her chocolate colored eyes. "Do you know what it's like for the one closest to you to be always gone?"

What came next was possibly the exact opposite from what she was expecting, Tsunade let out a small laugh at the girl. "Try having those people die years ago…there's no chance to ever see them again. If you can't get it through your head that as a Shinobi Naruto will be gone on missions…then don't date one."

Tsunade then got up to leave the room as Sasame stood there shocked at the Hokage's words. Had her dreams all been simply dreams? Did she not deserve to be happy and make Naruto happy as well? Had she even made the right decision in falling in love with the blond? 'No! I won't let her sway my heart!' She thought with determination and refusal in her eyes. "Then let me join Konoha's Shinobi force!"

Tsunade chuckled to herself at the girl's declaration, turning back she stared the girl down almost as if to make an impression on her. "You do realize that the situation might reverse if you are allowed to become a Konoha Shinobi? That you might be on a mission while he is here in Konoha."

"Hai! Even if I can't spend my time with Naruto-kun, I can at least be closer to him in spirit by helping him serve and protect the village he loves so dearly! I'll make Naruto-kun proud!"

Tsunade turned with a smirk and made her way to the broken door. "You sound just like Shizune when we left…you're evaluation will be in a week, I'll see if you're even fit to wear our mark…" With those words she vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving the girl to dwell on her message.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It had been a couple days since they had set off and nothing had really happened. Naruto mainly kept to himself while shooting Getsurei dirty looks every now and then. Hinata and Arashi would walk together, simply enjoying their time together and talking about various things. From telling her the story of their past mission to listening about what all had happened in Konoha, they were just enjoying each other. Hayate would strike up random conversations with Getsurei ranging from questions about the Land of Lightning to the weather. It was hard to really get anything out of the robed man; he was constantly looking up at the sky and was extremely dismissive of anything directed at him. All around Naruto and Arashi saw him as a pompous, arrogant, stuck up, royal pain in the ass. "Geeze, you'd think he was Shikamaru or something. The way he keeps looking at the clouds." Arashi said more or less under his breath to Hinata.

"No, he's different. S-Shikamaru-kun just gazes with that lazy l-look of his. B-but Getsurei-sama h-has a totally different look in his e-eyes, m-more focused and observant. Like h-he has something on his mind, while Shikamaru-kun w-watches the clouds to relax and escape his duties. I actually d-don't think he's looking at the c-clouds…more l-like he's looking p-past them." The Hyuuga said, her stutter still slightly there, but not as bad as she had once had it. Her mind would always flash back to the thought of telling Arashi about the marriage and it would play tricks on her concerning his reaction. Despite being one of the people who knew him the best, second only to Naruto, she couldn't figure out how he's react to the news.

"This is turning out to be really boring." Naruto said loud enough that everyone could hear him. "I mean I thought at least there would be something exciting to do, but nothing, not a thing has happened since we left."

"That is because we are still within the Land of Fire, fool." The pony tailed man said calmly, gaining a very pissed off look directed at him from Naruto.

"And what's that supposed to mean you bastard!?" He erupted back at the man with his fist shaking.

"It means that whatever Getsurei-sama needs our protection from isn't from our country." Hayate said before he coughed a couple times. "And that's why I'm here…we got a report of a rather odd person showing up outside Konoha." The baggy eyed Jonin got a steely look in then as he looked over at their client suspiciously. "Would you care to tell us why a member of the Guard Ninjas for the Land of Lightning was asking around about Arashi?"

Arashi and Naruto just looked at Hayate oddly, having never heard of a Guard Ninja before. Hinata on the other hand had been taught by her clan all about them. "G-Guard Ninja!? W-What do they want w-with Arashi-kun?"

"I don't know, but judging on how Getsurei-sama specifically asked for him to be on this mission…they were probably trying to find his weaknesses so they can carry out their mission." Hayate then stopped completely and faced the man. "What exactly do you need protecting from?"

Brushing past Hayate, he completely dismissed his question and continued down the road. "My father…come on now, don't make me wait all day. I'll have a more fitting discussion with you tonight; I don't know who else might be listening."

Arashi was now thoroughly confused, but with a nod from Hayate he knew he still needed to lead the team. "All right, let's go. We'll have a talk with Getsurei later I guess, but for now we still have ground to cover."

The five continued on for a while, each of them lost in their own thoughts on what was going on. This was until Hayate coughed violently, getting concerned looks from everyone. "I'm fine, but I think we've covered enough distance for the day." Trekking off the road they were using they soon found themselves a nice clearing in the forest and began setting up a camp to use later in the day.

Once everything was set up Hayate sent the three younger ones off to gather supplies like water, firewood, and any food they could find. "What are we doing? It's 3-o-clock!" Getsurei asked more annoyed than worried about their situation.

"We're still a bit away from leaving the Land of Fire, so there's no need to go rushing into whatever you have waiting for you…we're completely safe here. Besides a Shinobi shouldn't go to long without training, I need to see where those three are, and I have some certain things I 'cough' need to do with them. But I'm sure you know all about Shinobi, being the son of the Daimyo you must know all about Kumo." Hayate said, as he turned greet the others as they returned.

"Y-Yeah…" Hayate heard behind him in a disheartened voice, keeping his reaction in the back of his mind he left, leaving Getsurei by himself to either decide to watch their training or spend the rest of the day at the camp. 'That bastard…' He then thought to himself with clenched fists, as the Shinobi walked off and into a secluded area deeper in the forest.

The two Genin and a Chunin now stood before Hayate, the sword bearing Jonin looking them over as if they were livestock. "You three haven't had any training with any sort of weapon have you?" Getting a shake of their heads he smiled happily. "Perfect…then I can work with you a bit on my art of choice. I've read all you're files and I think I have an understanding of your fighting styles." Reaching into his back pocket he took out something small and tossed it to Naruto. "You're style Naruto; is one of a close quarters fighter. So with that in mind, Brass Knuckles are the perfect weapon for you."

Looking the metal devices over, Naruto smirked and simply tossed them back to Hayate. "Sorry, but I don't need those. I can make my own." With a couple hand signs he brought his hands up and slammed them into the ground, plunging them in up to his wrists. "Doton: Tetsukobushi no Jutsu." Pulling his now balled fists up they seemed to be coated in a dark metal, hitting the fists together the clang of metal could be heard. "With my Iron Fist I don't need those things as you can see." Dispelling the jutsu with a smirk, Hayate watched as the iron crumbled and fell from his fists.

He then tossed the knuckles back to the now surprised boy. "And what would you do if you were over water? Or if you needed quick use of your hands…idiot…" Turning from the disgruntled Naruto, his eyes set on Hinata. "But you my girl are perfect as you are, there are instances where weapons complicate things, and your Juuken is a prime example. You're fine the way you are, just keep working of what you would normally do."

"What about me?" Arashi asked, seeing that despite Hayate's want to teach them weaponry the other two really weren't suited for it.

"I was getting to you Arashi…" With a swift movement of his hand he whipped the Katana from his back and now held it in a battle ready position. "From your file, you are a mid range to close combat fighter. A katana would be perfect you, plus it would make me very happy to teach your mother's art to you. But I read that you've activated the Shekkeigan…do you have any way of using a sword from it?"

"Yeah I can actually…" Arashi's eyes then light up in their distinctive silver color, getting an intrigued look from Hayate as he felt the air around Arashi quickly grow colder. Grabbing his right wrist he held his hand out in front of him as his eyes shown with concentration. "Hyoton: Hyoken no Jutsu!" As he said this, water from the already humid air concentrated in his hand quickly and sprouted into a large broadsword. With a long hilt and a wide cross bar, it had a long and wide double sided blade on it. It wasn't like a Katana but more like a Claymore.

But while Naruto and Hinata looked on in awe at the forming of the large blade, Hayate simply laughed. "You 'cough' call that a sword?" He then held up his own Katana horizontally before his face, a gleam ran down the curved blade that made Arashi feel slightly uncomfortable. Then suddenly in a flash of blinding speed, Hayate's sword moved and sliced through the air. Everyone looked on in shock as the only thing that could be heard was the crash of the ice sword Arashi was holding hitting the ground. "Until you can make a sword that can stand up to mine, you will use a fitting blade." He then looked down at his blade and smiled. "This was one of the many swords your mother made and my favorite, Mizuki…" Then suddenly, with a sweep of his arm he now held in back behind him while he stood perfectly straight. With a crash the nearest tree suddenly fell to the ground, leaving a stump with a perfect edge, cut with such precision that the exposed core of the tree looked like it had been polished smooth. "This is what a sword truly is." Hayate remarked with a smug smirk on his face that gleamed with pride for his skills.

The three just stared in awe at his display. "Awesome!!" Naruto yelled as he ran over and looked the stump over, running his hand over the wood he was amazed at it. "So Arashi could do that?"

The Jonin let out a small laugh as he slid Mizuki back into its Saya. "After a decade or so of training…yes." Flipping open one of the pockets on his flack jacket he took out a small scroll and after biting his thumb, he whipped a bit of his blood down the paper. Soon following the puff of smoke that came from the scroll, a beautiful sword could be seen in Hayate's hand. It had a black lacquered Saya, its hilt was in a traditional style but with hints of silver outlining the wrapping on it, and an odd design on the butt of the hilt and the same symbol on the guard. "This is your mother's masterpiece, Heijin…she gave it to me so that one day I could give it to you. When she first found out she was pregnant she made this sword and instructed me to give it to her child when the time was right. It's your's now Arashi, learn to use it well."

He then tossed the blade to Arashi, who caught it and just stared down at the sword. In his hand he now had something to tie himself back to his family, an actual object that his mother had made specifically for him. Pulling the blade out his marveled as it sang upon being drawn, the distinctive sound of a blade being drawn was the only sound echoing through the forest. Looking the blade over closely, Arashi saw the word Himura etched into the base, and at the very moment a single leaf floated down from an overhead tree and was cut in half by just touching the blade. Shocked at its sharpness he slid it back into its saya, and then took more notice of the symbol that made up the guard of Heijin. It was an image of three triangles, one was large, white, and in the center. The other two were black and set to each side of it and behind it, making them look smaller than the first. They were all ringed by black, the blade came out of the center of the middle triangle, and a silver background, but on the butt of the hilt it was unblocked by the blade. "It's beautiful…but what's this symbol?"

"That is the symbol of the Himura, the Three Peaks…"

This instantly caught Naruto's attention. "Ero-Sennin and Shizune-neechan were talking about that, how can someone live their life by a symbol?"

Hayate then burst out in laughter that soon changed to coughs. "It's not just a symbol, but an ideology that was universal within the Himura. The Three Peaks represent the three qualities that every Himura was taught were of utmost importance their entire lives. These qualities of loyalty, honor, and love. It's kind of like the Will of Fire, it's a philosophy that the Himura lived by to be the kind of person whom they believed was best suited for protecting their loved ones and the village."

Hearing that, Hinata blushed slightly. It really sounded like something Arashi would believe in, and she could only smile at the look on his face as he looked at the sign of his family. Her thoughts were then interrupted by the coughing on Hayate. "Well then, let's get some training done you three. Naruto and Hinata…I want you to spar together and do anything else you see fit to do as training. I'll be teaching Arashi the basics of Kenjutsu today."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A man in a hooded gray cloak was walking down a corridor while on his way to the large room at the end of it. As he bumped past the people in his way he was having a blast just laughing in his own demented way. Stopping in front of the door he grinned widely as he flipped his hood back and flipped his hair back behind him. With a kick the massive door flew open to reveal a lavish room decorated with paintings, sculptures, and all sorts of objects covered in gold. In the middle of this room sat a man in a large throne chair, but was blocked from view by a low overhang that kept his features bathed in shadows. Taking a knee, Zankoji bowed his smiling head before his master. "What have you found out Zankoji?" The man said calmly as he flipped a gold coin between his fingers.

"Getsurei-sama has indeed chosen Konoha no Kogane Urufu, or Arashi Himura and his team as protectors for his journey back here. I have also discovered that the boy has awakened the legendary Kekkei Genkai of his clan." Getting back up he looked his master straight in the eye while wearing his demented smile. "It appears they left Konoha about two days ago, Master. When do we strike? When can I carve up the brats?"

"Soon, once they enter the country you and the others will make your move. This is our country's business and I will not risk it happening outside our borders. Gather the other two and make preparations." With another bow, Zankoji turned and left. Leaving only the sound of his chains clinking together and the sound of his laughter.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Damn Hinata, you've gotten a lot stronger!" Naruto said while panting as the group made their way back from their training area.

She giggled and blushed slightly at his compliment, but the winced in slight pain and grabbed her bruised shoulder. "You're Kage Bunshin have gotten stronger as well…faster too. You're just about as fast as A-Arashi-kun."

Behind then Arashi was dragging himself around, slight cuts could be seen on his hands. But he still had a proud look on his face as he continued to look down at the new addition to his outfit. Heijin was strapped to his belt and sat on his left side and strangely it seemed to look as if it belonged there. Hinata blushed deeply as she looked on at him while he talked happily with a hacking Hayate. It was then that Naruto leaned in close to her. "There's something up with you, your stutter is back and you can't stop blushing around him…I'm expecting you to explain yourself soon." Hinata gulped audibly but still nodded to Naruto, in truth she had wanted to tell him, but slightly didn't want to due to Naruto's rare slips of information.

Upon reaching the camp they were met with a very bored looking Getsurei, sitting down and poking the fire as the sun began to set. "About time you showed back up!" He then took in their appearances and scoffed at them. "So trying to kill each other counts as training to you guys?" But he did raise an eye brow to the sight of Heijin swaying back and forth on Arashi's waist.

After a dinner of ramen, the five sat down on some logs that had been arranged around the now bright fire. "Well 'cough, cough' I think it's about time you fill us in on what's going on. We had to leave so fast we couldn't even get a full explanation from Hokage-sama."

"As you have been told your mission is to protect me until my 21st birthday in less than three weeks. Where I will be named the new Daimyo of the Land of Lightning…the law of our country is that upon reaching the age of 21, the first born of the current Daimyo will take his place as leader of the country. It was first intended so that any bad rulers would be taken out of their rein."

"Yeah, well you don't exactly seem to be the benevolent leader type to me…" Naruto said under his breath.

After giving Naruto a death glare he straightened himself and continued. "So in knowing that I would one day rule my father, Ieyasu Raikou, has been putting his beliefs on ruling into my head since I was little. This is where the problems start…my father is a very corrupt man, he taxes far too much, has no regard for the safety of our people, and worst of all he is in with some bad trading. Once I got old enough to understand what he was doing, my entire view on my future was changed. I developed my own views on how I would rule…and that was when my father decided that I wasn't fit to rule in his place. He's been planning this for quite a while, ever since his drug trade was destroyed by the death of his associate…"

"Who was that?" Hayate asked, trying to delve into what was going on more.

"It was a man named Gato I believe."

Instantly the three younger Shinobi froze at the name. "Did you s-say G-G-Gato?!" Arashi stammered out in a shocked voice.

"You've heard of him as well?" Getsurei said, not fully understanding why they looked so shocked.

"Yes, we were there when he was killed by Zabuza Momochi. It was our mission that lead to his death." Naruto said, getting a shocked look from the robed man who finally thought hard on their names.

"Naruto!? I can't believe I didn't make the connection sooner, so you're the one!" He was instantly met with confused looks. "You're the one that The Great Naruto Bridge is named after!"

"THEY NAMED THE BRIDGE AFTER ME!?!?!?!" He erupted, flailing around until he was promptly whacked on the head by the Jonin present.

"I had thought it was a strange name when I first heard it…but anyway. I eventually heard of my father's plans to assassinate me so that my younger brother could rule in my stead once he came of age. I then discovered that upon my return from the Chunin Exams, my father's orders would be carried out. That's why after seeing the two of you, especially you Arashi…I refused to return without body guards." His fists clenched up on his knees and a frustrated look swept across his face. "I…I refuse to let my brother become Daimyo, he's even more corrupt that my father! That's why I needed you guys."

"B-But why Arashi-kun?" Hinata asked meekly, still not getting why he couldn't have gotten anyone else for the mission.

"For one, he is powerful and so is Naruto. I hadn't seen you fight so I don't know, but if I got Arashi, Naruto would come with him…and I was hoping to had Kopi Ninja Kakashi here as well." The pony tailed man said while shooting Hayate a look. "But secondly…as a shot at my father's pride." This gained confused looks from everyone save Hayate. "Your father was the bane of many of our Shinobi during the last Great War…the name of Himura has been cursed hundreds of times within the walls of my home. To have the son of Sano Himura be one of those to ensure my ascension to Daimyo, would be devastating to my father." With a sigh, Getsurei leaned back and looked up at the stars. "I just want to do what's best for my people…and living under my father's rule of my brother's is Not what's best for them." Standing up he whipped the dust off of his robe and yawned. "Enough of this, you got your information, I'm going to bed." He said as he stood and dusted off his robe, then proceeded into his tent for the night.

Once their client had gone, a silence overtook the four remaining Shinobi. Each of their heads swimming with the information that had been told to them. After a minute or so, this silence was broken by Naruto when he softly laughed to himself. "You know…he's not so bad once you find out a bit about him." He then turned to the chronic coughing Jonin seated near him. "You're taking the first watch Hayate-sensei?" After getting a nod from him and letting out a yawn of his own, Naruto also went and got in bed.

"You two should go to sleep also 'cough' we don't know when we could be attacked. You should rest up as much as possible."

"Hai." The two said before also retreating to their tents. Upon getting into his tent, Arashi sighed at the sight o Naruto putting on his trademark sleeping cap. "You still wear that thing? You do know you look ridiculous with it on…" The Himura muttered as he placed Heijin next to his bed roll.

"Yeah, so what? I can wear what I want, just because you don't have a wonderful night cap doesn't mean you have to be jealous of me!" He said before he stuck out his tongue at the Himura, mockingly.

"Baka…" Arashi retorted before he flopped down on where he was going to be sleeping. Then with a quick change of attitude he gave Naruto a look that he instantly picked up on. "Naruto…I…I want to tell her…" The Kyuubi container's eyes shot open at the realization of what he was really saying. "I want to tell Hina-chan about him…but…"

Laying back Naruto looked hard at the roof of their tent. "I know…"

"There's no way around it Naruto, I can't tell her without mentioning Kyuubi. I don't think it's right to tell her about you, you should be the one to do it."

Putting his blanket over him, Naruto rolled to the side facing away from Arashi. "I know…I want to tell her too…if anyone deserves to know about us, it's her…I'll get to it." He said half heartedly before closing his eyes and trying to fall asleep. 'But how?'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Gatsuuga!!" The spiraling vortex of claws and fangs slammed into a dark wall, that upon looking closely was actually moving. After being held at bay by the thick wall of bugs, the spinning attack ripped through it and slammed into the ground behind the mass of bugs. Once the dust cleared the form of Kiba could be seen smirking as he stood over Shino, who had been knocked to the ground from the attack.

"I see, by increasing the velocity of your attack you kept any of my Kikai from attaching to you. Quite a smart move Kiba…quite rare for you to think that far ahead."

"What's THAT supposed to mean bug head!?" The Inuzuka roared as he tried to land a furious blow on his now dodging friend's face.

The other two available members of their team were off to the side of the training ground they were using at the moment. "Is something wrong Sakura? You don't seem to be really into training today…"

Lifting her head to look at her sensei, Sakura had to admit to herself that she had been troubled lately. "Hai Sensei…it's just…" Lying back in the grass she took on a concentrated look, as if trying out find the right words to say. "What if someone told you that all they wanted was for you to be happy?"

Kurenai's eyebrow raised high at the realization that this wasn't about Sasuke, because she knew full well he'd never say anything like that to the pink haired girl. "I'd consider myself lucky to have someone who cares about me that much…is that all that's bothering you?"

With a reluctant shake of her head she sighed. "And what if for someone you care about to be happy…they have to do something you don't like?" She said quietly under her breath.

This caused Kurenai to frown deeply, it turned out that it wasn't about Sasuke on the surface. "Listen Sakura…I don't think anyone can change Sasuke's mind on his brother…not you, not me, not even Hokage-sama. But the closest thing to an answer I can give you is to make him enjoy things how they are…so that if an opportunity came for him to act on…he would rethink it."

"H-Hai…" She replied with a worried mind.

Elsewhere in Konoha a certain pineapple headed guy way lying down on a slope near his team's meeting grounds while he watched the sky. 'A deer… a fan…a ring…a baby?' He thought as he looked at the clouds, trying to see any shapes in them. Sitting up he irritably scratched his neck, where his new jacket had been rubbing all day.

"Shikamaru!!" He then heard echo around him, and in the most effort he had done all day he dodged the incoming haymaker destined for his face, making it slam into the ground where his head would have been. "You bastard! You were supposed to meet everyone at the restaurant two hours ago!!" Ino screamed as she shook her fist before her face.

"Settle down Ino-chan…" Chouji said defensively of his friend as he took hold of her balled fist and lowly brought it down to her side where he opened it and laced his fingers with her's.

They were all interrupted by a chuckle from behind them and a thick smoke in the air. "Now don't you look so much more important Shikamaru?"

"This is so troublesome…how can you stand to wear this Asuma-sensei? It keeps scratching my neck."

"Well you're not supposed to wear it simply over what you used to wear baka."

"Yeah…yeah, I like what I wear and don't want to give it up. Besides, wearing it proves that I've at least done something…it at least gets my mom to shut up and I didn't want to be like Arashi and simply not wear it." He said, much to the surprise to his other two team mates.

"So he made it too…it looks like Kurenai's predictions were right…again" The chain smoker said with a disappointed look on his face. "Come on you three, let's go celebrate already. If I'm going to pay for this I'd like to not waste my whole day on it." But much to the Jonin's displeasure, the Nara on the ground didn't budge an inch. "How about this, you get up off your lazy ass right now and I'll give you the day off tomorrow…"

In an instant Shikamaru was gone from the spot he was at and half way down the street. "You coming you guys?" He said, while Asuma gapped at him, like he was on fire or something.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"KUSOOOO!!" A yell echoed through the forest, birds took flight at the sudden noise. All of the flocking away from a blond haired Himura who at the moment was panting heavily, several balloon shreds surrounding him. "Kuso, kuso, kuso KUSO!!" Pulling out another balloon he blew it up and tied it. Closing his eyes he concentrated with all his mind. He could feel the Rasengan form in his right hand as he held it out in front of him, everything was perfect. But despite the power and rotation being just right, he was once again failing at creating a perfect shell around the torrent of power. The balloon could be seen vibrating, almost yearning to rip apart and infuriate Arashi even more.

"Pop!" The balloon shredded apart, sending Arashi's chakra flying in every which way and knocking him down to the ground. "Kuso…what aren't I doing!? How can I master this? I've been stuck at this stage for a week, I've hit a plateau and no matter what I do I can't get further than where I am now!"

Shaking his fist he stood back up to his feet with a fire in his eyes. "Enough with these damn balloons! Time to try it like Naruto!" The orb of power spiraled into existence in his hand, growing in size and speed. "Rasengan!!" He yelled as he slammed the attack into the nearest tree, making it erupt in a shower of splinters and dust. "Haa…haaa…haa" He panted, but as the dust cleared he frowned to see that the attack had been a mix of what he had seen Jiraiya demonstrate a couple weeks prior. It had gone in like it should have but halfway through the drilling action it ripped through the shell and blew up, making a spiral cut into the trunk of the tree. "Almost…I just need to work on it some more…" With a sigh he walked over with a frown, picking up Heijin he slid it into his belt and turned to make his way back to their camp where everyone should still be sleeping. He had specifically gotten up early to work on the Rasengan the best he could.

But unknown to him not everyone was asleep. Still sitting in her tent, Hinata sat with her Byakugan active and facing the direction Arashi was now heading back from. "Rasengan?" She was lucky that he had been so consumed with training the jutsu, otherwise he probably would have noticed the distinctive feeling of being watched by a Byakugan. 'Oh Arashi-kun…what would make you struggle so hard? It looked like you almost had it too.'

She was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts by a tap on her tent opening. "Hinata-chan, you awake?" It was Naruto, and Hinata had a bad feeling about what he could want with her. After telling him he could come in she was greeted warmly with his beaming smile. "Ohayo Hinata-chan…" Then his face shifter into a very serious look. "Now what's up with you? Did something happen when we were gone? Was in Neji…Arashi and I will kick his ass if he laid a finger on you!!"

Despite the seriousness of his face and the subject he was asking about, she couldn't help giggling at the blond. "No…no, nothing like that…" Her eyes instantly fell to the ground, and she started poking her fingers together. "It's j-just…Otou-san…"

"What about you're father!?" Naruto blurted, he knew that her father had always been a bad subject and was now worried about what he had done to the girl.

"N-No, it's…Arashi-kun…we're…" She was a stuttering mess and was shaking all over, gaining a concerned look from Naruto. But despite her present state of mind, she had a smile of bliss of her face that Naruto had never seen before. "We're…going to…we're…" With a large gulp she was determined to tell him. "A-a-arranged to be…m-m…married…"

She had finally said the truth and looking up she was met with the sight of Naruto staring bug eyed at her with his jaw on the ground. "NANI!!!!?!?!?!" He bellowed once his brain had reset to normal. "When!? How!?! What!?"

"Sandaime-sama and O-Otou-san arranged i-it some time ago…b-before the Forest of D-Death…"

There was a silence for a moment as Naruto seemed to still be processing the full weight of this revelation. His head was swimming with several thoughts, first and foremost was a huge smile at the achievement of what he knew was one of Hinata's biggest dreams. He was truly happy for his two of his best friends, but for once in his life he didn't have a clue how Arashi would react. Normally he would have a precise guess on what Arashi's reactions to things would be, it's how he normally got away with all his pranks on the boy. But in this situation he had no idea what so ever how he would act. But reaction on his first thought he smiled brightly and threw his arms in the air. "I'm so happy for you Hinata-chan!!"

Before he could scream anything else Hinata covered his mouth and looked around their position questioningly. "Arashi-kun should be back a-any minute…we should p-pack up and get Getsurei-sama up so w-we can go soon." With an acknowledges nod he slipped out of her tent and over to Getsurei's. 'Was telling him a bad idea?'

Outside her tent Naruto was a grinning fool as he stepped next to the older man's tent. With a swipe of his hands the two base steaks on the side he was standing on were ripped from the ground and the tent fell down on the man inside. "WHAT THE HELL!!!?" He yelled inside as an outline of him struggling to be freed from his tent prison. Finding the entrance he jumped out and thwacked Naruto over his head while he was cracking up. "You little SHIT!! How dare you wake me up like that!!" He screamed as he now gave chase to Naruto as he laughed his head off.

"What's 'cough' going on?" Hayate asked as he rubbed his eyes groggily.

"Who knows…Naruto just likes to piss people off sometimes." A voice behind him said, startling the Jonin.

Turning around he was met with a laughing Arashi while he watched Naruto run around with Getsurei on his tail. 'I didn't even feel him behind me…' He thought before he took in Arashi's full appearance. He had splinters on him in several places, and looked pretty beat up, like he had been training for a couple hours. 'Was he training? What could get him this worn out this early?'

After settling the soon to be Daimyo down and getting everything packed back up, the group once again found themselves walking the road they had been on the day before. Naruto and Hayate were on either side of Getsurei in a protective formation as Hinata and Arashi were up a couple feet, covering the front. As this was going on Naruto was keeping an eye on the two before him. The thoughts on what Hinata had told him had resurfaced and were swirling around in his mind once more. He searched his memories for any thing that could come close to what the revelation of this information would do to Arashi. But then Naruto started to feel an odd feeling, it was like a sort of frustration. 'What is this…' He thought as his gaze narrowed and he began to bore holes in Arashi's back with his glare. 'Is it…jealousy?'

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Somewhere in a dark and shadowy room a short man in the same grey cloak that Zankoji wears and metal contraption attached to his back, was kneeling before a figure hidden in the deep shadows of the room. "Zankoji set out this morning…he couldn't contain himself any longer. We tried to stop him, I'm sorry my Master." The man said while in his kneeled bow.

"It matters not…my plans will continue without fail. After all that Chain Freak is the weakest out of you three…let's see how he does." He then chuckled lightly, his voice full of malice. "If they can't defeat a person like Zankoji…" His grin grew large and could be seen from his position within the shadows, from his grin a small amount of light illuminated the shadow slightly. Where a Kumo headband could distinctly be seen. "What hope do they have against you, the strongest of the three…Oki…" The man kneeling light up in a grin at the sound of his name.

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**Sorry for the short chapter, I've been really distracted with several other things so it took a while to get this chapter done. I recently got addicted the Tenjou Tenge so that was a distraction, and the Naruto Marathon…even thought it was the dub I couldn't help but watch. Also there is a link in my profile to what the Three Peaks look like, it's on my deviant art page!**

**Next time! The clash of Konoha and the Guards begin! A new jutsu is revealed! Judgment is questioned! And the Eyes of Hate open again!**

**Everyone review! If you've read any of my chapters you know I love reviews! So everyone review or you'll get hit with a cloud of C4!!**

**Jutsu List:**

**Doton: Tetskobushi no Jutsu – Doton: Iron Hand no Jutsu**

**Hyoton: Hyoken no Jutsu – Hyoton: Ice Sword Jutsu**


	30. The Result of Teamwork!

**Review Reply:**

**The Elven-Spear:** Why thank you for your complement.

**SwordofMagus:** Oh I think you'll like the fight between them, it took a while to write but I had to make it a good one. Also, about him being the weakest, it's now like a vast difference. He's just weaker.

**DigitalDestiny360: **Yeah the last chapter was designed to introduce the new arc as well as set up other things and give Arashi Heijin and tie him more with his family.

**Deadly Spike:** What, my romances aren't interesting? Oh well, I have some interesting plans later on relationship wise. And for Sasame, there will be some things going on with her either in this chapter or the next.

**Chosha Kurenai:** Naruto's feelings on that do come up, but not as you're thinking. They'll also be more prevalent later on.

**VioletSnow: **There will be some more from them after this arc.

**Grapefruit.ninja:** You'll just have to find out what Naruto is jealous of exactly.

**Trueswipe:** Like I said before to you, I had no idea that it was like it when I created it. And that wasn't Kiba bashing; Shino seems like the kind of person who would say that irrelevant of who it was.

**Nina Natsu:** Well the fight chapter is here. As for Hinata…(laughs evilly) I think everyone will be presently surprised when I get to her big fight.

**Stattic44:** Yes, I thought "Chain Freak" was the perfect thing for him to be called.

**RasenganRendan01: **I think you're the only one who commented on Naruto finding out about the bridge being named after him.

**Royal Snaza:** haha, thanks for the complements, I'll be sure to continue making good chapters.

**Cloudfightback: **Yeah I thought it would be a good way of defining Arashi's character more and giving him a clan symbol.

**NarutoFanBoy4Life: **I think your character is coming up in the next chapter.

**Artemis-kibasgirlfriend:** No problem, I know the horrors of the new year and am amidst it myself…it sucks. But I will prevail and continue with my writing!!

**Ryumikratos: **The weapons I put thought into and they are the best weapons to accent their fighting style. But because Hinata's really couldn't be helped with weapons I didn't want to follow the cliché of giving everyone weapons just for the sake of it.

**Medokuse:** Wow thanks for all the reviews all at once! And also wow or knowing what the name of Heijin means, yes I do have a thing for swords. I await your reviews in the future!

**Tytan83:** Thanks, that means a lot. I can't wait to get more reviews form you in the future. You really should go back and review the other chapters as well, haha.

**Raiton77:** You're the only one to find the scene with Shikamaru funny, and yes I know about the name. I purposely chose it to be in reference to Ieyasu Tokugawa.

**Disclaimer: **I do NOT own Naruto, only Arashi and any other OC I create!

**I'm really sorry about the delay on writing this, I got hooked on Death Note and had to finish that as well as School started so I don't have as much time anymore and it is occupying my mind. Gomen!!**

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_(Previously)_

_Somewhere in a dark and shadowy room a short man in the same grey cloak that Zankoji wears and metal contraption attached to his back, was kneeling before a figure hidden in the deep shadows of the room. "Zankoji set out this morning…he couldn't contain himself any longer. We tried to stop him, I'm sorry my Master." The man said while in his kneeled bow._

"_It matters not…my plans will continue without fail. After all that Chain Freak is the weakest out of you three…let's see how he does." He then chuckled lightly, his voice full of malice. "If they can't defeat a person like Zankoji…" His grin grew large and could be seen from his position within the shadows; from his grin a small amount of light illuminated the shadow slightly, where a Kumo headband could distinctly be seen. "What hope do they have against you, the strongest of the three…Oki…" The man kneeling light up in a grin at the sound of his name._

_X_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What do you mean he's gone!?" A man in a flashy gold colored royal kimono yelled. He had shaggy grey hair with a noticeable bald spot on his head and a small tuft of gray hair on his chin. "How could you let him leave the castle? I specifically told him to wait until they were in Lightning territory!"

"I'm sorry Ieyasu-sama. It seems Zankoji-san left this morning in the direction of the Land of Fire." A woman with deep purple hair that fell to the middle of her back said. She wore a pair of tight white pants that ended mid-calf, so shoes for some reason, a standard Chunin flack jacket, a sash around her wait with the Land of Lightning's symbol on it, and a Kumo headband tied snugly around her left wrist. Under her flack jacket she had a black blouse on, the right arm extended past her hand in a billowing effect, while the left arm was sleeveless, exposing an odd tattoo on her left forearm.

"Get going! Get that lunatic back here before he fucks anything up!!" The Daimyo screamed at the woman. "Wear this…I don't want other anyone in the other countries knowing of the Guard's involvement!" He said as he angrily tossed a grey hooded cloak to her.

"Hai!" The woman said before vanishing in a puff of smoke and leaving the ruler to grumble to himself from within his lavish throne room.

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It was about mid day and nothing had occurred that stood out to the group of five. Their formation was the same as it had been the other days and Hayate was beginning to think that their current formation was a bad idea. Looking over he could see Naruto boring holes into Arashi's back while he walked and talked with Hinata, hand in hand. It was fairly obvious that they were a couple, but Hayate couldn't decide if Naruto was jealous over Hinata or simply jealous of their apparent happiness. But after an hour or so of observation he determined that it was the latter, once he saw the boy mouth something along the lines of 'Sasame-chan' he figured that the boy had someone of his own and was jealous that she wasn't with them at the moment.

'Look at you…so happy…so complete…you're out here in total bliss with Hinata-chan…While I'm separated from Sasame-chan again! I…I…!" Little did he realize that a sizeable gust of wind had begun swirling around him while he clenched his hands, he was brought out of his thoughts by Hayate's hand on his shoulder.

"Calm down." Looking up at the man Naruto had a questioning look, yet at the same time a look that was simply one of frustration. "You're not the only one separated from those you love…" The boy then lowered his head in shame, he had forgotten about the man while he was absorbed in his own thought. The Jonin then shifted his gaze slightly to look at Arashi and Hinata, who seemed unaware of what was happening behind them. "He's just lucky…he found love within his team." A small smile then crept across his face before he coughed a couple times. "You're not the only one to ever be in this predicament…it happened to me to."

Naruto's eyes went wide at hearing that, almost tripping over himself as they walked. "Shizune-neechan?" 'That means…her and Genma-san?!' Then for some off reason an image of Hinata dressed up as Shizune and Arashi dressed as Genma while chocking on a senbon appeared in his head. Breaking out in laughter he succeeded in drawing the attention of everyone around him. "It's nothing…really!" He replied to their odd looks at him.

Getsurei simply scoffed at the boy and continued his gaze upwards while they walked. But something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye, looking out to his right side he saw a single man cloaked in grey walk past their group while softly laughing to himself. Getsurei's eyes went wide when he saw under the hood and could see the yellow eyes looking straight at his, dripping with blood lust. The distinct scar running down the right side of his face…and that smile…that demented smile that had always given him the creeps. They had come for him, and from the look in the man's eye's he was couldn't wait to get started. "Z-Zankoji…" He said under his breath before making a bolt to separate himself from the man.

Seeing the sudden movement Zankoji figured he had been seen and with a leap was now behind the group. With a guttural laugh he thrust his arms forward and out of the sleeves of his robe a pair of chains shot out at amazing speed. "Time to die!!!"

Getsurei grabbed his head in fear, everyone now had seen the threat and was surrounding him. Hayate could see the Lightning emblem engraved on the man's iron collar and knew that their fight had come. With a hand on his sword he prepared to slash the chains to pieces as they sped towards them. But his hand was stopped when he heard the swift moving of hands in hand signs behind him. "Fuuton: Sekisho Kaze no Jutsu!" Pulling both arms down under his arm pits, Naruto suddenly whipped them out, sending off a large burst of chakra and wind. This resulted in a torrent of chakra infused wind that spiraled around them at great speeds. The instant the chains collided with the wall of wind, they were thrown off and back at their master. When the wind died down everyone in the group was looking at Naruto in shock as he stood with his hands held straight up and a smirk on his face.

"W-What the hell was that?!" Arashi asked, baffled at the new jutsu that had been revealed before him.

"I-It was a-almost like…" Hinata started saying before she heard an accomplished chuckle come from Naruto.

"That…was my answer to Kaiten." He happily said while giving Hinata a thumbs up. "After seeing first hand what Kaiten can do from Neji…and then from Hinata…" Arashi's head snapped over to his girlfriend in shock at hearing she could do the technique. "After all I didn't want to be the only one without a defense like that." Naruto said with a grin before he turned to look at their enemy.

Arashi's hands clenched into fists at hearing that, Naruto didn't know but the Himura couldn't do Kaiten. Or any other defense jutsu for that matter, it was a weakness that both Jiraiya and Kakashi had brought up to the boy in private. But it was also the reason for his advanced speed, in an attempt to bypass defense by dodging he had focused lots of time to increasing his speed. But even with the boost he still fell victim to injuries on the battle field far more often than anyone he knew. From getting struck down by Haku, to slashed and trapped by Gaara, and then up to the injuries he had sustained against Kabuto. The only thing that came close was his Suiton: Mizu Tatsumaki no Jutsu, but that was originally supposed to be used for the gathering of water for a bigger Suiton attack. 'Kuso…he gets Rasengan down and now this?'

The Himura was pulled out of his thoughts by a gleeful laugh coming from their cloaked enemy. Upon closer inspection of the situation they were very surprised to see that after the chains had bounced off of Naruto's defense they hadn't simply flew back and to the ground…but were coiled up in the air, almost like two serpents at the man's side. With a wave of his arms, the chains spiraled back inside his cloak and to their original resting spots. "This is going to be more fun that I thought! Not like Pinky and that Dog boy, you can actually put up a fight!" He then went off into more demented cackling, before the sleeves of his cloak literally exploded and the sight of chains wrapped around large muscular arms could be seen, with the sound of metal clinking together the chains slowly began to unravel from around each arm. They now were floating through the air like a pair of metal snakes ready to strike, both of them wrapped around just the top of his arm and effectively anchoring them there.

"How's he doing that!? That can't be weapon manipulation!" Arashi proclaimed with a questioning look to the closest weapon master. Getting an equally odd look from the Jonin he figured he had no clue.

Just as he was about to check himself he heard the quiet voice of Hinata speak up from beside him. "There's a thin chakra string intertwined with each link, going throughout the entire chain…it's almost like the Kugutsu no Jutsu."

Hearing that Naruto focused his view on the man's fingers, no chakra could be seen coming out of them, but Hinata's observation was confirmed when the chain began to move once more at the twitch on his index finger. "So it's like that Suna cat man from the Chunin exams…but its still different…"

"GREAT!" Zankoji suddenly screamed in joy. "You figured it out! This s really going to be fun! HAAHAHAHA!!!" His shoulders shaking from his muffled laughter, the cloaked man then reached up slowly to the hood over his head and then in one swift motion ripped it off. This exposed his demented grin and beady yellow eyes, his limp and stringy hair flowing in the wind, and a glimmer of the sun's rays reflected off the large collar he wore. "My name is Zankoji Toushura…you should always know the name of…HAHAHA!!! YOU'RE KILLER!!" Throwing the shredded hood upwards the mad man swept his arms forward and the chains shot towards the group.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" A shout was heard and in a flash there were ten Narutos holding down the two chains.

"Good job Naruto!" Arashi said in a hurry as he saw the chains begin to struggle against the ten Bunshin, slowly breaking free of their grasp. Seeing this he turned back to the three behind him and Naruto. "Hina-chan! Go with Hayate-sensei and get Getsurei to a safer place!" With a nod and a grin, the Hyuuga turned to Hayate who in turn nodded. Standing next to the soon to be Daimyo he roughly picked him up and flung him over his shoulder, with a jump the three were in the trees and looking for a place to stow their client.

"Enough…" Zankoji grinned, suddenly the chains rolled up on themselves. Turning into two large spiral shaped appendages coming out of the remnants of the man's sleeves, the chains then quickly contracted…killing every Bunshin that had been holding onto the chains. Then with a whirling sound they shot out again, only missing the two boys as they dodged by inches and slamming into the trees behind them with devastating force.

'They're stuck! It's my chance!' Arashi thought frantically, drawing Heijin in a swift and fluid motion he raised him high above his head and began to bring the blade down on the links below.

"Heh…" Seeing the sword coming down Zankoji made a single hand sign. "Dageki!" He then yelled, a bright surge of electricity then shot down the length of the chains, and the instant Heijin touched it, the surge hit. Traveling up the blade it found its target in Arashi.

In a flash, Arashi had been shot back and slammed into a tree trunk. "Gaah!" He coughed as his now smoking body twitched from within the crater he had made in the wood. Once his singed body became under his control again he shook his head to straighten out his thoughts. This didn't last long, as the first thing he saw when he looked up was Zankoji's fist about to connect with his face. It was too close for him to dodge completely, but he still had enough room to make sure it wasn't too damaging. With the fastest turn of his face possible at that proximity he made sure that the punch landed on his cheek and not on the bridge of his nose like it had been aimed.

"Arashi!!" Naruto yelled, watching as his friend was sent flying through the tree and onto the ground. "Teme…" He said in more of a feral growl than his normal tone of voice. Throwing his hands up into the familiar cross shaped hand sign he muttered the words of his favorite jutsu and twenty Kage Bunshin poofed into existence.

'Hmm…more Kage Bunshin.' "I don't like Kage Bunshin!" Zankoji yelled with his demented grin as with a sweep of his chains five of the twenty were hewed in half. "There's no BLOOD when I kill one!!!" Then in a scream of delight he whirled around in almost a dance like movement, ending with him punching out both fists in the direction of the remaining Bunshin. This extra movement had added considerable momentum to the chains and upon impact with the Bunshin, the solid sphere shaped ends ripped straight through them as if they were tissue paper.

With a groan, Arashi rose to his feet and after whipping the trickle of blood that was coming out of his mouth, slide Heijin back into his sheath, and in a flash was off to where he had been hit from. At the moment he got there was when Zankoji ripped through the clones, his chains punching through a tree behind him. 'They're stuck again…I can't risk taking another shock from trying to cut them. What are we going to do?'

With his two chains embedded in the tree Zankoji had figured that the boy would try to cut at them, and when he did he had quite a shocking experience waiting for him. But he saw that the Himura was hesitant about his decision so he shifted his attention back to the Bunshin. The smoke was just about to drift away from the already destroyed ones, leaving the original alone. He had targeted all of them so that he'd be able to find the real one. "Come out come out Bunshin Gaki!" The smoke blew away with the wind, and to Zankoji's utmost shock there was no one there. The real Naruto was no where to be seen.

"Up here dumb ass!!" Reeling his head upwards Zankoji had a look of shock as he saw the orange clad boy high in the air with his arms extended and crossed in front of him with an odd movement of air around each forearm.

'Shit! I can't get my chains out fast enough to stop him!!'

"Fuuton: Kaze Kiritateru no Jutsu!!" Pulling his arms against each other a bright yellow stream of slicing chakra was shot straight down at the taught chains. Like a knife through butter, the attack shredded through the chains close enough for Zankoji to feel the charka against his arms and get several cuts on them..

"You actually cut my chains…" He said in a weaker voice than he had been using up till then. But his shocked look was suddenly changed by widened eyes and an even more demented grin than they had seen from him. "This is GREAT!!" He said before cackling to himself maniacally.

Meanwhile the other three were a while away keeping guard on Getsurei, in case Zankoji was not alone in his attack. "Hinata, are you watching what's going on?" Hayate asked, while he too looked around for anything out of the ordinary. They were in the thickest area of the woods they could find, if anyone was looking for them it would be near impossible to find them unless with the aid of a Byakugan.

"Of course…they're fighting at a-about even, A-Arashi-kun took a p-pretty bad hit but Naruto actually s-severed the man's chains!"

"Baka…he should have gone for Zankoji an not the chains!" Hayate said more to himself, but both Hinata and Getsurei heard him.

"Do you know him? I didn't think you heard his name…" The robed man asked uncomfortably, still nervous about having his enemies actively pursuing his death now.

With a narrowed glare in the direction of where the others were fighting he sighed deeply. "I fought him a long time ago…and them cutting his chains…is probably the worst thing that could have happened!"

"You did it Naruto!" Arashi yelled out as his friend landed next to him and the chains that had been embedded in the tree behind them fell limply to the ground.

Their little celebration was cut short as Zankoji suddenly burst out in a sickening laughter that was louder and bigger than any other they had heard from him. "THIS IS GREAT!!!!" With his maniacal grin plastered on his scared face, he reached up and with a sharp tug, ripped off the remaining parts of his cloak. "I can now…use THIS!!!!" The two looked on in shock as the cloth fell to the ground revealing Zankoji to now be shirtless, but the oddest thing on him and what drew their attention the most were five summoning seals tattooed onto the front of his body. Arashi had no doubt that there were five more on his back, then before either boy could do anything a chain just like the ones before shot out of one of the seals at an incredible speed. It's small solid sphere shaped end slammed into Naruto's gut, sending him flying back as blood flew from his mouth. The chain user's smile only getting wider as he saw the possibility of more carnage.

'This is bad! This is really bad!!' Arashi thought as he saw the chain retract back into the seals from which it had come. 'What can I do? If I try to cut the chains I'll just get hit with that electric attack! Plus those things move a lot faster than the other ones…' His gaze narrowed on his enemy, thinking of the other possibility that could happen if they attacked recklessly. He had tasted first hand what happened if he simply reacted without thinking. 'It's highly likely he'll have an electric defense he can use on his body like he did on the chains.'

Getting up with a cough, Naruto was once again next to Arashi as they both stared down their enemy who hadn't actually made a step since pummeling Arashi through the tree earlier. "What are we going to do now? You're a Chunin, got any plans?" He finished slightly sarcastically.

Arashi snapped his head over to his friend with an angry glare. "Hey! I didn't ask for them to promote me! This isn't the time or place to get into this Naruto and you know it!" Then with a concentrated look his eyes suddenly shifted over to the distinctive look of a fully active Byakugan. "Hold on a second and I can see anything else odd about him…" Looking him over he soon learned how the chain had been summoned without activating the seal. Each one of the seals was centered around one of his tenketsu, simply by sending chakra to that specific point he could activate the seal and summon a chain. His sight also let him see his back, and not to his surprise he noticed five more seals on his back. "Listen Naruto, we have to keep a careful eye on those seals. There are ten in total and he can activate them without touching them."

"Got it, but why ten?"

"Hina-chan said earlier that he uses something similar to the Kugutsu no Jutsu, so if he's really good at it he could control one chain with one finger, so ten in total is his limit."

Their little talk was suddenly interrupted by a low chuckle from their enemy, who for the first time started to walk towards them. "Are you done chatting your plans over? I'm starting to get bored!" With a sickening lick of his lips he stopped and threw his head back in a loud cackle. "I guess I should…HAHAHA…end this and have my fun. HAHA!!" Then all at once every seal activated and chains started to slither out of them. What happened next, not even Shikamaru could have thought of. Four of the five chains now coming out of his chest quickly coiled themselves around each of his limbs while the ones on his back were hanging in the air like metallic tentacles just itching to draw blood.

"What's he up too…why cut his numbers down…" Then a light went off in Naruto's head.

"You see it too…he's using the wrapped chains as armor and added power to his blows…" The Himura's eyes narrowed, trying to figure out what to do against the man.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" He heard next to him, and before he could stop Naruto, five Bunshin were speeding at Zankoji with kunai drawn. Leaping high in the air, the Bunshin all went for a falling stab at their enemy. But ass soon as they began to fall back down from their leap they were impaled by five of Zankoji's hovering chains.

"Shit!" Arashi said quickly as he saw the sixth free chain shoot towards Naruto in an attempt to quench Zankoji's blood lust and rid him of the Bunshin. Pushing Naruto out of the way, Arashi had his hand itching next to Heijin as he saw the chain embed itself in the ground and catch momentarily. 'I can get it again…but if I do he'll hit me with that electrical attack!" Then with a frustrated groan he clenched his teeth for the possibility of an upcoming shock and drew Heijin. 'But I have to try!!' Zankoji's eyebrows went up fast when he saw that Arashi was actually going to try and cut his chains a second time. With a large laugh he grabbed onto the stuck chain and pulled it as hard as he could, not wanting it to get cut off. Seeing this, Arashi could see that he was safe to cut it, and at the last second before it was pulled away, he cut off the solid end.

"What happened!? Shouldn't you have gotten shocked!?" Naruto proclaimed in a confused voice.

"You little brats…I'm going to tear you limb from limb and bathe in your blood!" Zankoji yelled out with a scowl, a rare serious look from him. The chain that had been severed from its end slowly began to coil around his torso, making armor out of the links. Now only the five seals on his back were held up as his weapons, but Arashi now had to keep and eye on the others on his limbs because at any moment he could uncoil them and attack.

"I don't know why…" Then his face light up as if someone had flicked n a light in his head. "Of course! Look Naruto, the ones you cut earlier…where do they come from?" Naruto looked at the stubs of chains that now hung limp at his shoulders, following them up he was partially disgusted to see that they were attached to him from under his skin. They were apparently hooked onto his collar bone, and protruded out of the tops of his shoulders. "They're based on him so he could send an electric current down them with no problem…but these new ones are based trough summoning seals. So the current is dispersed by going both ways down the chain…he can't use that attack anymore!"

The two boys then looked at each other with grins forming on their faces. "I think its time we took it up another level Arashi…"

"Oh really? You want to go that far?" He replied slyly. Then both of them raised their hands into a single hand sign after closed their eyes. "Kai!"

Seeing this and feeling the release of a fair amount of chakra, Zankoji had an odd feeling as he looked at the now smirking boys before him. He couldn't put his finger on it, but they both looked more confident and they even stood up straighter. Still with a sadistic grin on his face, he waited to see what kind of new challenge they would give to him so that he could crush it and let their blood flow over his chains. 'What did those two do…they know something…'

"Naruto…Battle Plan 16 would work with this situation don't you think?" Arashi said under his breath through the constant smile he had seemed to develop whenever he releases his bracers.

"16 huh?" Then scanning over their opponent he let out a small chuckle. "You think he'll fall for it?" Getting a nod from Arashi he then slammed both his fists together, and then in a swift movement punched both of them into the ground, making a rather large hole. "Doton: Tetsko…" Then an idea popped into his head so he went with it and pulled his hands out of the ground and reached back into his hip pouch. "On second thought…I think I'll use these instead!" Bringing his hands forward he now had his pair of Brass Knuckles on and a glint in his eye.

'What can they be doing? No matter…I'll shed their skin off with my chains if they get too close.' Then suddenly the two vanished from sight, leaving only a huge gust of wind coming from where they had disappeared from. Then just as fast two knees were driven into the back of the chained man, shooting him off at an incredible speed in the direction of the trees that lined the sides of the road they were fighting on. 'Impossible! No person can move that fast that suddenly! They were fast before but nothing impressive!!' Then as he flew through the air he let out a large laugh. "This is turning out to be better than I thought!!" With a twist of his body, and a flick of his fingers, two of his chains shot out and wrapped themselves around the tree he was headed towards. Keeping the momentum of his flight he then spun around the tree, using it as a pivot point and shot himself back out towards the two boys who were still in the air after landing their double team attack. 'Let's have some BLOOD!!!"

Just as he was about to grab them with his chains they vanished once more, then appearing to each side of him. Both of them each stood in the exact same stance and had the same smile on their faces. 'What's with these two? They move identically…its like their thinking the same thing!' "You punks won't escape that easily!" With an extra burst of chakra Zankoji shot out his chains at a speed that had not been seen before, and succeeded in latching onto both of the boys. "Now to get rid of the Bunshin brat!" Throwing Arashi hard into a near by trunk, he then coiled a chain around each of Naruto's limbs and held him suspended in mid air and right in front of him. The pressure being applied to his arms and legs began to increase as well as the force seeming to pull them apart. "I said I would tear you limb from limb didn't I!?" Zankoji said menacingly as he could hear the muscles begin to reach their tearing point while he pulled his arm back to hit the boy hard with a chain reinforced blow.

But he was thrown off completely by the smirk that adorned Naruto's face. With a grin he looked directly at the man, eye to eye. "Poof…" Zankoji's eye then went wide as the person before him suddenly vanished in a puff of smoke, and in his place was Arashi's fist coming directly at his face.

The Kage Bunshin had dispersed as Arashi's attack made contact and kept going towards its true target. 'Shit! They planned this…but I still got time!" The arm that had been pulled back for a blow shot out and grabbed Arashi's fist, stopping the attack and keeping him far enough away as to avoid a counter attack. But at that moment he heard a cracking noise beneath him. "What the hell!?" Suddenly Naruto burst from the ground and connected his Brass Knuckled fist viciously with the chain user's chin. The force from the impact forced him to let go of Arashi, and sent him sailing high into the air.

With Zankoji still in the air Naruto touched down on the ground after his exploding uppercut and instantly shot off after their enemy. Coming back into sight just above Zankoji he twisted his body so he could get the right strike. Then with all the strength he had left he slammed the heel of his foot into the man's exposed chest. "Naruto Rendan!!!" Shooting down, Zankoji fell to the ground with an explosion of dust and debris.

Coming down and landing next to Arashi, the two boys were both breathing heavily and sweating profusely after the burst of speed. "Damn…moving at that speed for that long really takes a toll on the body!" Arashi said through his gasps for air while Naruto fell down and sprawled out on the ground with an accomplished look on his face.

"Tell me…about it! But the plan…worked perfectly!" Then his smile grew even larger as he began to laugh out loud happily. "That guy was so stupid!! I can't believe that worked!"

Back in the protection of the forest Hinata had a shocked look upon her face as she watched the battle from afar. She was absolutely astonished with the speed at which the two had been using; it was so much higher than anything she had seen from them. Part of her was put down by the seemingly vast amount they had improved in comparison to her. But the majority of her mind was happy and glad for them, for them to be able to be that strong they were only moving forward towards their dream of Hokage. "I'll be back Hayate-sensei…"

"W-Wait!" He called out, but it was too late, she was gone and going as fast as she could to where the battle took place. "Damn it!" With a scowl he grabbed Getsurei and took off after her, but found it difficult to do so with Getsurei flailing around wildly as he leapt through the trees.

Back with the two tired boy, they had put their bracers back on and were starting to feel normal again, the adrenalin from the high speeds was dissipating and the sense of security was beginning to sink in. Sitting up from his previous position, Naruto sighed heavily. "I guess we should go find Hinata-chan and the others…she's going to be worried about us."

But unknown to them a yellow eye shot open at hearing that name and a sadistic laugh could be heard coming from the crater Zankoji now lay in. "He couldn't be!" Arashi shouted in a shocked voice as he and Naruto ran over and looked in surprise at the man. He was hovering not more than an inch off the ground. All of his chains shoved into the ground, holding him up and with out a doubt had been used to stop his fall.

It was at that moment that Hinata showed up to see the two looking down at Zankoji. "Arashi-kun! Naruto-kun!"

This caught them by surprise and the two of them whirled around to look towards her at quite possibly the worst possible moment. Seeing their attention drawn away from him, Zankoji quickly hit them hard with a sweep of one of his chains, sending them both flying into the trunk of a tree with a sickening crunch. Naruto took the brunt of the harsh impact, seeing as how Arashi had landed on him and not the tree, so he was squished between them and had lost consciousness. Standing up from the small crater he was in, Zankoji let out a loud laugh as he looked at Hinata with his crazy eyes. "So this is Hinata-chan…the Dog Boy didn't lie, she supplied a distraction big enough for me to exploit." Turning his gaze, his eyebrow raised slightly as he saw Arashi rising slowly to his feet with a very angry look on his face. "Ohhh…looks like I get to have a little more fun with this one…" But then his delighted face moved back to focus on Hinata. "But I think I'll tear this one to shreds first…to show the Himura some real pain!"

Then with a sadistic cackle he shot off towards Hinata with all of his chains poised and ready for blood. Seeing the incoming attack Hinata quickly got into her Jyuken stance and was preparing herself to face the daunting opponent, but then she heard a voice that could only belong to her one love in her life. "KAAAAI!!" Just as Zankoji was about to wrap his chains around her and constrict her till she spurted blood from her eye sockets, he was hit with a devastating kick to the side of his face, sending him spiraling into a tree that erupted in an explosion of splinters.

'How, how did he get through the chains blocking us? I had thought he would do something like that so I put most of my chains on that side! How did he get around them??' His questions were answered as he looked hard at the face of the boy who had landed the massive hit, more specifically his eyes. "Sharingan!?"

In Arashi's eyes, the Sharingan blazed with fury as he looked at the man with a death glare. "If you ever touch my Hina-chan…I'LL KILL YOU!!" It was at that moment that he felt an odd feeling in his eyes, dismissing it as nothing he couldn't see what Zankoji saw…his Sharingan mature into three tomes. Hinata just looked on in awe at the boy in front of her; he was directly before her in a protective stance with his back turned to her and his glare directed right at Zankoji.

Going through his head about what to do his thoughts were interrupted by a shout from the Hokage within him. **"Use it! Use it now!! You can do it!"**

Wincing in pain Zankoji rose to his feet after brushing of the splinters of wood that now stuck out of him at various places. But Arashi didn't see this, he had is eyes closed with his right hand extended and held off to the side of him. 'Concentrate…and retain!" The spiraling mass of chakra suddenly swirled into existence in his hand, and in that moment something inside Arashi clicked. Something he had been missing up until that point was introduced into his use of the Rasengan, desperation…the desperation to protect Hinata at any cost had given him the extra push to be able to form the complete shell around the ball of spinning destruction. Now in his hand he held the fully mastered Rasengan as it glowed brighter and spun faster, reaching the maximum amount of power it could use.

Hinata had never seen anything like what Arashi now held in his hand, looking at it with her Byakugan she had to cover her eyes slightly because of the intense amount of chakra contained in the ball. Then with a guttural battle cry, Arashi shot out towards the still woozy enemy with his arm pulled back and ready to strike. It was also then that Hayate arrived n the scene, only to almost loose his jaw as it fell to the ground. 'Impossible! That's Yondaime-sama's jutsu!' He thought as he could only watch the son of his Sensei charge at his enemy.

"Shit!! What's that!?!" Zankoji yelled as he thrust his chains out in an attempt to grab the boy and stop the incoming attack.

But with his Sharingan active, dodging the streaks of metal was a simple matter. Now within a single step of the madman, he shoved his hand forth with all the strength he had left. "RASENGAN!!"

The spiraling vortex of chakra slammed into Zankoji's gut with a force he had never experienced before. "UHAHHHH!!" He screamed as the tearing of flesh could be heard before he was sent rocketing back through the forest, enveloped in a glowing sphere of chakra. In all he was sent spiraling through about 25 meters of heavily wooded forest before slamming into a more sturdy tree and falling face down on the ground, coughing up blood and bleeding profusely from his abdomen.

"I…did it Hina-chan…" Arashi managed to say before his eyes rolled back into his head and he passed out from chakra deprivation.

"Arashi-kun!" She yelled as she raced over to where he now lay, picking him up she sat his head on her lap and with a smile reached down and kissed his cheek. "You're going to b-be just fine Arashi-kun." Hearing a snap of someone stepping on a twig she whipped her head to the side and saw Hayate and Getsurei walking towards them, she then realized that she had left them earlier and had an instant bad feeling for leaving when she shouldn't have. "G-Gomen Hayate-sensei…" She said with her head down.

"That's not an issue anymore Hinata, we need to get out of here and find somewhere we can rest…" The Jonin then looked over where the chain wielder had been shot off to and scowled hard as he coughed. "Try to see if you can wake Naruto up…I'll be right back."

With a nod she pulled Arashi over to the side of the road with the help of Getsurei and leaned him against the base of a tree. She was only kept by his side for a moment, being lost in gazing at his face, it looked so calm, serene, and absolutely happy. Forcing herself to leave him, she hurried to Naruto's side. Shaking him slightly he groaned and began to stir slightly. "Come on Naruto-kun, w-wake up."

She shook him a little harder but stopped when she saw his eyes slowly open. "Damn, what hit me?" Trying to get up, he managed to get to a knee before collapsing back to the ground. "Ooh, I'm tired…I'm just going…to take a little...nap…" He said before losing falling fast asleep.

With a smile Hinata called Getsurei over and they pulled Naruto over to where Arashi was sleeping.

But in the forest, from on a tree branch overhead, Hayate was looking down at the place Zankoji now lay unconscious at the bottom of. Just as he was about to jump down to finish the man off he was suddenly stopped by two man sized deep purple panthers that appeared between him. Backing up the Jonin warily grabbed a hold of his sword, readying himself for combat. Then walking out of the undergrowth a woman with long dark purple hair poking out from under a grey hooded cloak the same as the one Zankoji had been wearing, went over and stood over the defeated Zankoji. "What a loser, getting defeated by a coupe of punks." She said coldly before reaching down and grabbing a hold of his iron collar.

"Who are you!?" Hayate asked threateningly as he drew Mizuki.

"Put the blade away, I'm just here to pick up the trash. We have our orders and this idiot defied them." With a show of impressive strength the woman picked up the defeated man and tossed him atop on of the panthers separating her and Hayate. "The name's Kinme Kurohyou…and you better watch out for me once you get in Lightning territory!" Then in a gust of wind and the roars of the panthers, she was gone. Leaving only the destroyed trees and a concerned Hayate.

"Damn it more weirdoes…" He said to himself before turning to head back to where the others were. "We need to find some place where those two can rest and recover.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Back in Konoha a pair of eyes slowly opened, suddenly blinded by the florescent lights overhead he shut them again in pain. But then the memory of where he had been surfaced in his mind and his eyes shot open. "Itachi!!" Sasuke screamed out, thinking his brother was still in front of him and that he was still in that hall way. His sudden shout woke up Sakura, who just stared blankly at the Uchiha with unbelieving eyes. "Sakura? What are you doing here?"

"SASUKE-KUN!!!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs before throwing herself on top of the boy, weeping onto his shoulder. Then for the first time in his life, he didn't instantly push her away, he was confused as to the situation and she probably could answer his questions. He might as well let her get at least a little satisfaction from the contact.

After a minute or so she released him and sat back in her chair, sniffling and rubbing the tears out of her eyes. "Sakura, where am I? What happened to my brother?"

Having heard the entire story of their exploits from Naruto the day of Tsunade's inauguration she smiled at being able to help Sasuke out with his questions. "You're in Konoha Hospital…you've been in a coma for a month and a half." She said quietly to him.

With a confused look on his face he pushed himself up with his left arm, but then he remembered that Itachi had snapped it. Looking down at it, it was completely healed, you wouldn't even know he had broken it. "My arm…what happened?"

"Hokage-sama healed you when she arrived." This only resulted an even more confused look from the Uchiha. "Oh that's right you don't know, Tsunade-sama, one of the legendary Sannin is now the Godaime Hokage…Naruto and Arashi brought her back to the village."

"What?!" He said in disbelief, his fists clenched and instantly felt the effects of not moving for over a month. "Tell me everything you know." He said with a serious look on his face that gave Sakura an uneasy feeling. But despite this feeling that she shouldn't tell him, she nodded and told him everything she had heard from the hyperactive blond. This of course wasn't everything; Naruto had specifically left out anything dealing with the Rasengan.

But he had left her with one bit of information that had put a rage inside Sasuke the second after hearing it. "He said "Just you wait Sakura-chan, Arashi and I are far stronger now than we've ever been, it won't be long before we take the title from Tsunade-baachan!"

Sasuke now sat in his hospital bed, looking down at his clench fists on his lap. 'Kuso…those two bastards. Here I am in bed for more than a month and they're out getting even stronger! I refuse…" His fists clenched even harder and his whole body began to shake. 'I refuse…I REFUSE TO LOOSE TO THEM!!' He though with his Sharingan now active and rage in them. After changing into his old cloths due to not having his preferable black body condom, coming out of the bathroom he looked over to Sakura who had a concerned look on her face. "Sakura, could you give me a minute?" He said in his normal cold voice.

"Of course Sasuke-kun. We can go get Kiba-kun and Shino-kun after this! They were worried about you too, not as much as I was but still." She then realized she was rambling and stepped outside the room for a minute, not knowing why he had needed time to himself. "Sasuke-kun? Are you alright?" She asked before deciding to go in and check on him herself. Upon opening the door she saw the window flung open and the curtains flowing in the wind, but no Sasuke. "Sasuke-kun!!" She yelled out the window but to no avail, Sasuke was already gone and off somewhere to train. "What is up with him?" She said to herself once she had snuck out and avoided the screaming nurses who were freaking out about a missing coma patient. "Maybe I shouldn't have told him about Naruto and Arashi…" She said quietly, her judgment on the subject wavered by Sasuke's reaction.

Now far away from the Hospital, Sasuke stopped at the area he did most of his training. Before him there as a gigantic boulder with dozens of holes punched into by many Chidori attacks, looking at the stone he narrowed his gaze in anger. "Kuso! I have to get stronger!! Stronger than Arashi, stronger than Itachi! Stronger than NARUTO!!!!" The chirping and sparking chakra erupted from his hand, with a mad dash at the rock he slammed his glowing hand into it. "CHIDORI!!!" After the dust and crumbling rock had fallen away he looked at where he had hit it. It wasn't nearly as destructive as his other ones that littered the surface of the rock.

Opening and closing his hand a couple times the Uchiha frowned at himself. "My body, I need to get that speed I had back…no I need more. Arashi and Naruto are fast as hell, I need to get much faster…I need more power!" He said in little more than a growl when suddenly his entire body was wracked with pain coming from his neck. "The curse mark!" He yelled in pain as he fell to his knees. After a minute or so the mark apparently clamed down and the boy shakily rose to his feet.

"I need to find Kakashi, I need power and he can give it to me. Kurenai-sensei can teach me nothing." He spat out before dashing off in search of the cycloptic Jonin.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Finally, once again I'm sorry about this taking a while but with school starting and my new love of death Note I jut couldn't get along with the chapter. Sure I could have forced it but that would have made a crappy chapter and I don't do crappy chapters!**

**So it was a real intense fight between Zankoji and the two boys! What will happen next time? What threats face them once they enter into the Land of Lightning?**

**Everyone please review! I loved the amount of reviews I got on the last chapter! 19 of them!! So everyone please review!! I only need a couple more and I break the 500 review mark!!!! COME ON AND REVIEW!!! Don't make me threaten you again!!**

**Also I have started writing a joint fic recently. There is a link on my profile to our joint profile! It's going to be a really good story so everyone should go check it out and tell us what you think of it with some reviews!!!**

**Jutsu List:**

**Fuuton : Sekisho Kaze no Jutsu – Fuuton: Wind Barrier Jutsu**

**Suiton: Mizu Tatsumaki no Jutsu – Suiton: Water Tornado Jutsu**

**Kugutsu no Jutsu – Puppet Master Jutsu**

**Dageki: Shock!**

**Fuuton: Kaze Kiritateru no Jutsu – Fuuton: Wind Slash Jutsu**

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Naruto: Hey Arashi, use your Byakugan to see how many links Zankoji has in all his chains!

Arashi: Okay…Byakugan!!

Naruto: Well?

Arashi: It's over NINE THOOOOOUSAAAAAND!!!!

Naruto: WHAT!? NINE THOUSAND!!?!?!

**I couldn't help myself…haha!**


	31. Aftermath and Revelations

**Review Reply:**

**Static44:** Yes Sasuke is being all angsty again; you'll see some more of that in here as well.

**Artemis-kibasgirlfriend:** Yeah I try my best to get characters in character as much as possible. And I'm glad you're likening what I'm doing with Sasuke-teme.

**Tytan83:** don't worry we'll see Hayate fight. And your comment about having Hayate go with Hinata is addressed in this chapter.

**NarutoFanBoy4Life: **It could be some foreshadowing, muah hahaha!

**Nina Natsu:** No, Kinme is not Hinata's mother. I repeat Not Hinata's mother!

**SwordofMagus:** Yeah, I tried to make that fight quite kickass. But as for Sasuke finding out about Zankoji, how would he?

**Digitaldestiny360:** I wouldn't say they've been fighting and complaining a lot. But if you have a brother then you can relate to what they're doing. Each one wants to be the best and not lose to the other. It serves to make them both stronger while keeping a good relationship.

**Chosha Kurenai:** haha, I see someone is already looking ahead to the next arc! Don't worry I already have it all thought out; it's going to be awesomes!

**Trueswipe:** Yes Zankoji is still alive, you'll see his return this chapter.

**Grapefruit.ninja: **I understand the no time to do stuff, that's why this is so late! Well you should get your 10th chapter out soon!

**Royal Snaza:** Him not being able to use Kaiten is part of his character and fighting style. It'll come up again; he's a very offensive thinking person so he's not that good at defense and all.

**Deadly Spike:** That would have been fun if he did run off. Then I could have him die in some random forest and hardly anyone would care!

**Cloudfightback:** Your reviews are…not "rubbish", haha. Anyway Now that I've got this out ch. 3 of our joint project should be done soon!

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto…but I do own Arashi and any other OCs I make!

**And sorry for this chapter being 'posted' already. I had been doing edits on previous chapters and accidentally put it in new chapter instead of replace. Sorry.**

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Walking through the Academy brought back several bad memories for the bowl cut wearing Genin. With a smile he gave a half hearted wave to Iruka, one of his previous teachers, as he made his way to the dojo of the building. Despite the memories that surrounded the room, it was by far his favorite spot to work on his taijutsu. By now the news of Sasuke's flight from the hospital had reached his ears from Sakura when he saw her the day before. 'I wonder why he would just run away like that. Whatever it is, I hope he does not get hurt again, I can not stand to see Sakura-chan sad like she has been anymore.' Lee thought as he made his way to his training area.

But upon rounding the final corner he came to the entrance and was surprised to see someone else using the room. "HYAA!!" The person screamed as she went into a furious assault on the training post before her. Her red pony tail bobbed up and down as she moved with her stances. "KYAA!!" She shouted as she drove a hard elbow into the center of the post, resulting in a loud crack of the wood. Stopping her assault she shook her head disappointedly at the post. "There goes another one…" With a straining noise she hoisted the post out of its holding spot and tossed it over to the side of the dojo, where three other broken posts lay. Going over to the supply closet she seemingly struggled to pull out a new post.

Seeing her struggle with the post, Lee smiled at his opportunity to help out. "It looks like you could use a little help." Whirling around at the sudden appearance of another person, Lee was met with a surprised look from a pair of deep chocolate eyes he could have sworn he had seen before. Then his memory kicked in and he recognized her face. "That's right. You're Sasame, Naruto-kun girlfriend right?"

"Yes…Lee, right?" With a happy nod of his head she smiled slightly at his when without even saying so he picked up the post with ease and placed in down in the appropriate place. "I could have done that myself you know." She said as she stretched her arm across her body before her face turned somewhat angry. "I'm not some weak little girl!"

"I never thought you were, but even the strong must accept help at times." He said happily. "Might I ask what you are doing in here, I have never seen you in here before."

"If you must know I'm training obviously!" She retorted before he dropped into a taijutsu stance in front of the post, her eyes narrowing on it. "I have a test to pass in a couple days."

She was about to go full blast at the post when in a blur of green she could barely see, Lee was now standing before her with one arm pulled behind his back and another held out with his palm open and facing up. "Perhaps I could give you some better training than a post." He said with a smile.

"Why are you helping me?" Sasame asked, still in her stance. Her right hand balled into a fist and held close to her while her left arm was held farther out with the hand open and held stiff and vertical.

"If you are working this hard it must be an important test…plus you are Naruto-kun's girlfriend, and that in itself makes us friends." His eyes then gleamed at the thought of facing off against someone new. "So would mind sparring with me then Sasame-san?"

But with a smile she just leapt out at him, which of course was instantly blocked by the Taijutsu master. Both of them then began to go into the slow rhythmic motions of simple sparring. As time passé their movements began to get faster and more powerful. They had been going a good ten minutes an Sasame was beginning to breathe quite hard while Lee hadn't even broken a sweat. Sasame had clearly reached her limit in the Taijutsu department, and this made Lee frown as they continued to spar. The force behind her blows was impressive for someone her size, but her speed left many openings and her technique wasn't one that could be as effective as possible. Jumping back Lee separated himself from the now panting girl. "I think that's enough for right now Sasame-chan."

Raising her head she shook it from side to side. "No! I can go on!" Jumping at him her fist was effortlessly knocked away and with a spin of his leg, she was sent spinning into the wall of the dojo. Opening her eyes after the impact she looked up at Lee in awe, she noticed then that he wasn't breathing hard or even sweating despite what they had just done. 'Is this what a real ninja is like?' Getting to her feet she began to think that her quest to become a Konoha Shinobi was a hopeless one, if she remembered correctly Lee was a Genin, the very rank she was going for. If there was such a vast difference in abilities then what were her chances of passing? "How…are you…so good?" She asked through pants for air. "I'm no where near your level!"

To her answer Lee just laughed lightly. "There are very few who could stand up to me in Taijutsu." He was met with a confused look from the girl. "Are you able to perform Ninjutsu and Genjutsu Sasame-san?" In response he got a nod for yes like he had thought so he went on in his explanation. "Well I can not do Genjutsu or Ninjutsu, all I have is Taijutsu and my dream is to show the whole world that I can become a splendid ninja using only Taijutsu! I have trained relentlessly every day for many years on my Taijutsu; it is not something you should compare yourself to." He said with a smile as he helped her to her feet. "If you do not mind, what kind of test are you training for?"

"Hokage-sama said she was going to give me an opportunity to become a Konoha Shinobi in a week so that I could fight alongside Naruto-kun."

With a smile he placed his hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about that, there are plenty of Genin here that aren't anywhere close to being able to do what you just showed me. I am sure you will pass." With a wave he then disappeared from sight, off to one of his many other training sites.

But at that moment the post they had put up suddenly fell apart into a hundred pieces. Looking at it bewildered Sasame was absolutely freaked out. 'When did he do THAT!?!'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

With a groan, the blue eyes of the last Himura opened up to a new surrounding. He distinctly remembered the last thing him seeing before he passed out was looking up at Hinata after he blasted Zankoji away with his now mastered Rasengan. Looking around he was quite obviously not where they had been. Currently he was lying on a bed roll and covered up in a nice warm blanket, he was in what looked to be a bedroom of some kind, the walls were unpainted wood and there was a single window in the wall to his left. "Where the hell…" He began to say but was then cut off by the sound of Naruto's voice.

"It's about time you woke up." Looking over he saw Naruto sitting against the far was with a couple bandages on him, then taking in his own appearance he noticed the bandages on him. "I was beginning to worry, you're normally not out that long from chakra exhaustion."

"Where are we?" Arashi asked as he rubbed his eyes and sat up, throwing the blanket off him in the process.

"I don't know…Hinata-chan was in here about an hour ago checking up on you. She didn't say specifically where we were but she made it seem we're not in the Land of Fire anymore." Getting up and brushing his shoulder off, Naruto went over to the door and knocked loudly on it. "He's awake, and I'm getting hungry!!"

About a minute later Hinata opened up the door with a bright smile upon her face at seeing Arashi up and looking healthy. After a large hug that put him back on the floor and a bright blush from her they all went out into the main room of what Arashi could guess was a house. Getting out there he saw four people sitting at a large table covered in a navy blue table cloth with the Kanji for Lightning in the middle. On one side sat both Getsurei and Hayate, but on the other side sat two people neither Arashi nor Naruto had ever seen before. From their clothing it was very easy to see that they were monks, one of the two was an older man in maybe his late fifties while the other was young and about a year or so older than they were.

"It's good to see the two of you are finally up." The older monk said, he wore traditional Monk clothing and had a long purple beaded necklace around his neck. He had a shaved head, kind blue eyes and wore a pair of square glasses that made him look like a person of wisdom. "Oh where are my manners, my name is Ekim Yorugairo, and this…" he motioned over to the younger boy sitting next to him who wore the same outfit with the exception that his beads were blood red. Also his hair seemed off for a monk, normally it would be shaved, but he had dark brown hair which was generally short and his bangs stuck out and up, he also had a small patch that was longer than the rest in the back that was held together with a golden ring. "This is my disciple Shikyo Shinotura."

Arashi was getting a good feeling from the older man, he seemed genuinely nice and had a smile on his face the whole time he was talking to them. But looking at Shikyo, he got a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach, there was just something about the guy he instantly didn't like. Standing there Arashi was just scowling at the boy, who to his surprise was scowling at him as well. "What's your problem blondie?" Getting no response from the Himura he smirked to himself and pulled out the chair next to him. "In that case why don't you sit on down here Hinata-chan, we can pick up where we left off." He said with a lecherous grin while he rubbed the seat of the chair. Suddenly the reason for the feeling became all too clear to Arashi, as if someone had turned on a light; he had seen that grin before as well. He had seen it far too many times on the face of Jiraiya to misinterpret its meaning.

With a kick of his foot, the chair went crashing over and moving closer Arashi put a foot over top of it while he leaned down to Shikyo's level with a glare on his face. "Whoops, my foot slipped." He snarled at the boy while every one except Hinata rolled their eyes at the two. Hinata stood there with a large blush on her face and her hands clasped together and held tightly against her chest.

"Did it now?" Shikyo snarled back as sparks began to fly from the glares they were shooting each other.

"That's enough!" Ekim then said loudly as he bopped his young disciple hard over the head. "Cute little Hinata-san, already told us that he is her boyfriend. I will not have you trying to break people up anymore!" Picking the now cross armed boy up by the back of his shirt he promptly sat him down in his chair and sat back down in the one Shikyo had been sitting in before. "I'm sorry about that, he can get out of hand sometimes." The man said apologetically to Arashi who said just picked up the knocked over chair and sat down in it. "Shikyo, get some tea." He then commanded, getting a low grumble from the boy as he went off into the kitchen.

Hinata then sat down next to Arashi while Naruto went over and sat between Getsurei and Hayate. The young Hyuuga still wore the blush brightly on her face as she now looked on at Arashi who looked to still be in a foul mood over Shikyo. 'He's jealous, and he was going to fight Shikyo to defend me!' With a large smile she pulled her chair closer to Arashi's and grabbed onto his arm ad held tight.

Now that everything seemed to have calmed down considerably, Naruto got to take in his surroundings and the first thing he noticed was a large ice pack on Hayate's back. "Uhhh...how did you hurt your back Sensei?"

"Carrying you!! Baka!! Do you know you weigh a ton!?" The usually quiet man shouted at the boy.

'Oh yeah, I re-activated my bracers…' He thought nervously as he rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry about that Sensei, by the way where the hell are we?" He then asked as Arashi nodded in wanting to know their whereabouts as well.

With a sigh, Hayate reached behind him and put the ice pack he had on his back on top of the table before them. "As you know, before we were confronted by one of the Guard Shinobi of Lightning were nearing the boarder of the Land of Fire. But as luck would have it after the battle was over and you both were out cold, Ekim-san and Shikyo-san came upon us. He somehow recognized Getsurei-sama and offered to help us, so we made our way into the Land of Pines and to Ekim-san's home here on the eastern shore."

Taking this all in, there suddenly was a gigantic alarm that just sounded in Arashi's head. Quickly standing up he was now looking beady eyed at the man sitting to his right. "And how do we know he's not with that Zankoji guy!? How would he be able to recognize Getsurei?"

But in response to Arashi's accusations, Ekim simply laughed softly to himself. "I don't fault you for coming to that conclusion Arashi-san, it is a logical thought. But there is an explanation, I'm sure you've seen the back of Getsurei-sama's robe and the Kanji on it. No matter how long I live I could never forget that symbol." Naruto and Arashi were just looking at the old man with confusion etched onto their faces, Hinata merely giggled to herself because she had already heard what he was about to say. "It might be hard to believe, but I used to be a Guard Shinobi myself." He said with a bright smile while his thoughts raced back to the days of his youth.

Many miles away in Konoha, Gai suddenly shot his eyes open as he looked north. "My Youth Senses are tingling!!!"

"As I was saying, I used to be a Guard Shinobi…I served Ieyasu's father, the previous Daimyo. I knew Ieyasu from my days in the castle, but he knew me as well. So when he took over power from his father, one of the first things he did was to replace me and banish me from the country." He said as he looked out the window longingly. "I ended up settling down here and becoming a monk…but at least here I can still see the ocean like I did back in the castle." He stated with a smile and a glint in his eye. The old man then broke his own wandering thought with a light chuckle. "But enough of that…make yourselves at home. You two were pretty banged up so you should rest some and regain your strength."

With a scoff at the present company, Getsurei stood up and after a look out the window he made his way towards the door. "The Sun's about to set anyway, you idiots might as well rest up…if anyone needs me I'll be outside." The future Daimyo said and with his arms crossed headed out the door.

"Man, what an asshole…" Arashi said under his breath, but Naruto heard it and snickered slightly.

"Are you done mocking our client?" Hayate said with his normal demeanor but with a slight hint of annoyance. "Naruto…you and Hinata should keep an eye on Getsurei-sama; it is what we were hired for isn't it?" With a nod the two of them got up and left, now it was just Arashi and Hayate. Looking around Arashi began to wonder where Ekim had gone; he hadn't even noticed him leaving. With a shrug of his shoulders Arashi figured he might as well accompany them, but really he wanted to make sure Shikyo didn't show up. But this was before Hayate cleared his throat and leaned forward with his hands laced beneath his chin. "Where do you thin you're going?" After a slight sigh, Arashi sat back down across from the now coughing Jonin. "Now, if you were to rate your performance yesterday…how would you?"

"Well we engaged the enemy with sufficient assistance…we had the target of our enemy protected well and Naruto and I successfully took down our enemy…so I'd say that we did pretty well."

"Wrong." Hayate said strongly, causing Arashi's eyes to widen at the man. "I wouldn't call having two members of your team fall unconscious, with yourself being one of them, as 'successfully' defeating your enemy. You did decently…for your first time commanding while under attack…but there were many aspects you could have done better in." Arashi was now looking down slightly, he hadn't thought that he had done as poorly as Hayate was indicating, but he did speak the truth, he and Naruto had gone down with Zankoji. "For example…why did you choose Naruto to stay and fight with you besides the obvious reason of better teamwork?"

"That's simple, so that you could help Hina-chan out if she needed it on the chance that Zankoji wasn't alone."

"As expected…but in the situation we were in, not knowing if he was alone or not, what you should have done was have Naruto and I fight. That way with the strength of a Jonin we should have taken him down much faster than you two did, so that that our strength would be greater if a second enemy showed up. You and Hinata could have watched the battle with your Byakugan while also keeping an eye out for additional enemies." Arashi's head sank more by the second, everything Hayate was saying was true and he should have come up with it himself.

"You're right…I'm sorry." The Chunin said with a hung head.

"You idiot, I didn't say you did horrible. You sure as hell did a lot better than I did my first mission as a Chunin commander!" Hayate said with a partial smile at the horrid mission he royally screwed up in. Looking over he saw that Arashi was somewhat interested in what had happened so he figured he'd let him. "This was about thirteen or so years ago, I had become the first Chunin on my squad…oh how I rubbed it in Genma's face!" He said with a slight laugh before bursting into a coughing fit. "I was given command of a mission to go and attack a Kumo training camp near their border. But when we got there I thought they didn't look all that tough, was overly confident in my sword skills, and had our entire squad charge into the camp…" He then subconsciously reached up and gripped the right side of his chest. "That's where I met Zankoji…"

"You've fought him before!?" Arashi suddenly burst out.

"While you were fighting him, did you ever wonder where that scar of the right side of his face came from?" Hayate responded with a smirk. "But I didn't come away unscathed either. He hit me really hard in the right chest with the end of one of his sealed chains. That hit snapped a rib, and that rib punctured my right lung, it was a bad wound and even when it healed…'cough'…it left me with this damn cough all the time, and because of the seriousness of my injury we had to pull out and we failed the mission." Taking his hand off his chest he stood up and motioned for Arashi to follow him. "Ekim-san was right though, you should rest for a while…so get to bed."

"Hai." Arashi said half heartedly as he slinked off to the bedroom he had woken up in.

Meanwhile Naruto and Hinata were sitting on top of the roof of the house while watching over Getsurei who was lying down on a bench beside the house while he gazed up at the now dark sky. "So have we figured out why he's always looking at the sky? If he was like Shikamaru he'd be bored due to the lack of clouds…but he seems to be enjoying himself." Naruto said with a disgruntled look, his disdain for the man below them evident.

They sat that way for a while, just watching Getsurei stare up at the now visible stars. "N-Naruto-kun…" Hinata managed to say quietly, but the blond heard her none the less and leaned in questioningly. "When d-do you t-think I…I s-should tell Arashi-kun about the m-marriage…?"

With a sigh, Naruto lay back on the sloped roof and looked up at the stars overhead with deep thought written upon his face. "I don't know Hinata-chan…I really have no idea, but all I do know is that you shouldn't tell him during the mission. He has enough to think about, he may not show it but he's concerned about his performance out here, and he has a lot on his mind without the miss…" He said, catching himself on the last bit. He had almost completely forgotten Arashi's plea to him to tell Hinata about the Kyuubi and Yondaime, now he was deep in thought about how he could possibly pull it off.

Hinata was about to ask him what he meant when he suddenly stopped talking, a very non-Naruto thing in the first place, but also he had a very serious look on his face. A look that Hinata had never seen on his face before, it was a look that seemed torn between two options. But just as she was about to bring the subject up she heard Getsurei open the door of the house and go inside. "G-Getsurei-sama went inside Naruto-kun; I guess we should go in as w-well." She said reluctantly, she had recently taken a liking to star watching after Arashi had told her how much he enjoyed it.

Despite what she had said, Naruto still was lying down and looking upwards. A look on division in his mind and pain etched onto his face. Opening his mouth words refused to come out as Hinata stood up from where they had been sitting. "Wait…hold on Hinata-chan…I…I mean I want to…there's something I want to talk to you about." He finally managed to force out, stopping Hinata while she looked at him confused.

"W-what do you want to talk about Naruto-kun?" She asked warily, she had never heard Naruto sound so nervous and scared before and it was making her feel slightly uneasy about whatever he needed to discuss.

"Well…" He started before he sat up so that his legs were dangling over the edge of the roof. Trying to find the right words to tell her, he remained silent for a few moments. "What do you know about the legend of Yondaime Hokage?"

Sitting back down next to Naruto, Hinata instantly knew the answer to his question. "Of c-course Naruto-kun, his story is told in almost every household…the legendary Yondaime Hokage, the most powerful Shinobi to ever come out of Konoha, and the man who destroyed the Kyuubi and sacrificed his own life to protect his people. My father was on his Genin team under Jiraiya-sensei, s-so I've probably heard m-more about him than most…" She then looked upwards with the slightest hint of admiration in her eyes as she thought back to the childhood stories her father would tell her about the man. "He's my hero…" She said with confidence before realizing other things tying in with that word. "I-I mean you and Arashi-kun are as well…" She stammered out somewhat embarrassed. "W-What I mean is…o-one of the reasons I think I…I can get along with you and Arashi-kun so well…i-is that I see him in both your eyes…especially Arashi-kun." She said with a bright blush and a smile on her face. "Otou-san has one picture of him from his Genin days in his study; you both have the same eyes he did in that picture…s-so why do you ask Naruto-kun?"

After hearing what the Hyuuga had to say, Naruto's face had turned into a hard scowl. 'How can I do this…she idolizes Yondaime-sama, what will she think if I tell her he didn't destroy the Kyuubi and is in Arashi?' He could feel his scowl deepening as he clenched his fists. 'But Arashi really wants her to know…and she deserves to know the truth, especially if she respects Yondaime so much! She deserves to know what he really did!' He thought now with determination, now the issue was to phrase it right, he didn't think Hinata wouldn't accept them after she knew, but there was always the chance. "Umm…well you see…that isn't exactly the truth about what he did."

"W-What do you mean?" Hinata asked, now very confused. If what she had been told was a lie, then why was she told it, and what was the truth?

"You see…you know about his battle with Kyuubi, but it has never been told how he did it. Yondaime-sama wasn't strong enough to destroy Kyuubi like everyone says he was, so he came up with a brilliant plan to rid everyone of the demon." Hinata just looked at him with wide eyes, trying to figure out just what Naruto was telling her and why. "This plan was to not destroy Kyuubi, but to seal it away so that it couldn't harm the village. He sealed the Kyuubi in a newborn child at the cost of his own life…"

Being the bright girl she was she was beginning to place events in her head together and was coming up with a possible answer to the questions running through her head. She didn't know too much about Naruto and Arashi's life before the academy, but she wasn't oblivious and had seen the looks given to the two by many of the older villagers, heard glimpses of what they said about them, the veiled hatred aimed at Naruto. It was all beginning to fall into place; all she needed was one final push to realize the truth. "So…"

With a sigh, Naruto quickly began to mold chakra, closing his eyes he winced at the thought of finally telling Hinata the thing he had wanted to avoid telling her ever since the day they became friends. Lifting up his shirt he now showed a wide eyed Hinata the seal on his stomach. "He sealed the Kyuubi inside a child…and that child was me...Kyuubi is alive and I am its keeper." He admitted with a lowered head.

Hinata still just sat there wide eyed, staring at Naruto. Everything now made complete sense to her, how he had so much stamina, the looks filled with hatred aimed at him, and that strange chakra that he had shown during his fight with Haku. She couldn't contain herself anymore, and seeing the look of shame and fear on Naruto's face she knew what she had to do. "I'm so…so sorry Naruto-kun." She said softly while she grabbed him and hugged him gently. "It d-doesn't change anything, y-you're still our Naruto-kun." Her own tears now began to well up at the corners of her eyes, not for her, but for Naruto. For how he must have been treated during his childhood, the questions he must have asked himself on why it was him Yondaime chose.

Returning the hug Naruto could only smile, someone else had accepted him for who he is and not for what he held within him. Once Hinata let go she was rather surprised to see him smiling his trademark grin. "I know that, it's just great that you think that too." His smile getting even bigger, he felt completely different now, a gigantic weight had been lifted off his back and he was now free. He didn't have to hide anything from his team any longer and it felt great. But then seeing Hinata begin to wipe away the tears that were running down her face, he remembered exactly why he had done it. Now he had anew conflicting dilemma, to tell Hinata himself about Yondaime or to let Arashi tell her. "That actually isn't all I was meaning to tell you…" He said in a torn voice, he didn't know if it was the right decision to tell her himself, but he thought that since the story was already fresh in her head that it would be easier for her to understand. It wasn't an issue of acceptance for Naruto because of her acceptance of him, what would stop her from accepting Yondaime?

"I-It isn't?"

"No, and this has to do with Arashi…" He almost smirked to himself when he saw her perk up and pay full attention when he mentioned his name. 'You're one lucky guy Arashi…I wish one day Sasame will look like that when she hears my name…' His thoughts racing back to the girl he had to leave in Konoha, he missed her so much but he also knew there was nothing he could do about it. Save for barge into Tsunade's office and demand she be allowed to become a Shinobi of the village. 'Well I guess it's time I told her…'

Unknown to the two up on the roof, across from them in a tree and hidden from sight, Hayate sat keeping an eye on them. Just out of earshot he was wearing a smile on his face when he had seen Naruto's lips move in the distinct pattern for the word 'Kyuubi'. He was proud of Naruto, knowing what he had inside him Hayate had wondered when and if the boy would open up and tell his team mates. With the smile still on his face he was just about to dash off and back inside the house before they got back in, when suddenly he saw Hinata faint. Naruto was now holding onto her and promptly freaking out. 'That idiot, what did he tell her?'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Today was just like any other day for Kakashi Hatake that is except for his constant hiding. Ever since the previous day he had been avoiding Sasuke, who had apparently woken up from his coma and come searching for him for training. He had caught the Jonin at home after coming back from the second S-Rank mission he had been assigned since his own awakening. The Uchiha had just burst in, not even bothering it knock and absolutely ruined a great night that Kakashi had all planned out for Anko. 'That little punk, who does he think he is? He isn't even my damn student!' Kakashi mumbled to himself while using a henge to blend in with the crowds of people as he got his errands done for the day, with his plans ruined the day before, he was going to surprise Anko tonight.

But he would be proved wrong yet again when said Uchiha dropped down directly in front of him; Kakashi rolled his eye at the reappearance of that cursed black body condom-like suit that Sasuke seemed to have a fascination with. "What, did you forget my Sharingan can see through Henge? Now train me, I have to get stronger, I have to get faster!"

"Where did you find that? I thought I burned all of those." Kakashi said calmly as he released the Henge and looked at Sasuke with a scowl. "And why do you come to me? You have your own Sensei to bother."

"She can't teach me anything of use." Sasuke said coldly, since the boy had jumped in front of Kakashi the streets had emptied. Looking around Kakashi now knew that either he wasn't getting out of there without teaching Sasuke, fighting him, or doing some smooth talking to get him to bug someone else. Of course not wanting to decimate a Genin in the middle of town and _really_ not wanting to train the boy, he had to go with option three. "Fine…but why do you insist on coming to me?"

"You're strong, far stronger that Kurenai. You're fast, you have the Sharingan, and…" He stopped himself before going to far into his reasoning, but it was just enough for Kakashi to pick up on it.

"Because I'm Naruto and Arashi's Sensei, right?" With a sigh, Kakashi ran his hand through his spiked hair. 'If you really want to get stronger then you _should_ be looking for Kurenai." Looking at the boy he could see that he wasn't getting what he was trying to imply. "Judging from your character, you're lucky you got on Kurenai's team and not mine…I wouldn't have passed you."

"What!?" Sasuke growled more in anger than in surprise.

"You're far too self-centered, only thinking for yourself and your own goals. It's the reason why you're weak, you have no teamwork. It's also why my team is one of the strongest teams in Konoha. If you truly wanted to get stronger you should be seeking out Kiba, Shino, and Sakura to work together." Then rubbing his mask covered chin, the Jonin looked up into the bright blue sky. "But if you're seeking a speed boost like you said…it means you're wanting to close the gap between yourself and my students. Just by looking at you I can tell you've regained the speed I taught you for the Chunin Exams…but you want to have more don't you?"

Sasuke just looked at the man before him, anger clearly written all over his face. Here he was getting insulted and being put down, both something that the Uchiha wasn't inclined to ever let have happen. "So will you train me to be stronger than them?"

"That's the thing you don't understand…I didn't train them to be strong. They already were…and I had nothing to do with their speed either, they trained for that on their own. I can't help you Sasuke, I'm sorry." Kakashi said while looking the boy directly in the eyes to make his point firm and clear to the Uchiha.

With rage in his eyes Sasuke simply turned without a word and sped off to gather supplies. 'That fool, who does he think he is? Refusing to train me? If those two idiots can do it on their own…then so can I!!' He thought as he rushed back to his house to prepare for what he was going to do. "There that's just about all of it." He said to himself after loading a couple scrolls full of training equipment.

Sasuke could only scowl as he looked around; too many painful memories were locked within the walls of his home. It's not like he would go and live in an apartment and just let any somebody come along and buy his family's home. No, he continued to live there, the vast majority of the grounds untouched and unused. The only rooms he had ever used after the massacre was his room, the kitchen, and the dojo. Every thing that had been associated with Itachi was long destroyed, in fact the first thing he did upon moving back into the place after his stay in the hospital was to burn everything of Itachi's to nothing but ash. That also included Itachi's room and anything else he used. But just being back in the house now set a fire within Sasuke that it had never done before.

Just standing there he could hear his brother's voice from that fateful night. _"You are not even worth killing. Foolish little brother…if you wish to kill me; hate me, detest me…and survive in an unsightly way. Run. Run and cling to your pathetic life."_

Clenching his left hand hard his narrowed eyes looked down at his fist. He lived to make it stronger, to one day use that hand to drive a Chidori straight through his brother's heart. But until that day he had to get stronger, slipping into his pack he was ready to head off to his secluded spot alone. That was until just after he locked the front gates to the Uchiha compound. "I had a feeling I'd find you here…Sasuke." A voice said in a confident and cocky tone, shortly accompanied by a high pitched bark of a dog.

Turning around, Sasuke's glare fell upon Kiba who was simply smirking at him. "What are you doing here Kiba?" He said with no emotion in his voice what so ever.

"What am I doing here!? Are you retarded?! Everyone's been looking all over for you! You disappear from the hospital after being in a coma for over a month and don't tell anyone where you were going or what you were doing! Sakura-chan is worried sick, Kurenai-sensei is furious, and Shino…well Shino is Shino so I didn't get anything from him…BUT WE'RE PISSED!!"

Just looking at the Inuzuka, Sasuke could see a portion of what Kakashi had told him. His team was weak; in the long run they would just hold him back. "And you think I care?" The boy said as coldly as he could to the person now blocking his path down the street and ultimately to his destination.

With a feral growl Kiba walked up to Sasuke and gripped his oversized collar tightly. "That is exactly why I can't stand you Uchiha; you think you're so much better than everyone!" Sasuke just looked at him with a cold glare for having the balls to grab him like that. But his expression would soon change with what Kiba was about to say. "I don't give a flying fuck what you stupid brother did to you, that isn't an excuse to be an ass to your friends who care about you!!"

Now Kiba had gone too far, suddenly Sasuke's hand shot up and was now tightening around the hand Kiba was using to hold onto him. With the pressure increasing you could hear his joints begin to pop under the pressure. But just as the bones in his hand were about to give way, the Uchiha let got and threw Kiba's hand back in his face. "Don't touch me…" He said as he took a step forward to leave, but Sasuke even raised an eyebrow when Kiba still refused to move.

Sasuke hadn't thought him to be tough enough to do such a thing, a lot of things apparently happened while he was out. "What the fuck is your problem? We're your friends! We want to help you stupid dumb as…"

Kiba said before suddenly he was hit with the backside of Sasuke's right fist, it connected hard with his right cheek, sending him careening into the building to Sasuke's right. The wall he had collided with was completely destroyed and Kiba now lay unconscious, half under the wall's rubble. Looking over Sasuke shot a cold scowl at Akamaru who was now barking like crazy at him, seeing the look in Sasuke's eyes the dog began to back up to his owner while whimpering. "You were in my way Kiba…and there are only three people I would consider as friends…and you're not one of them." Then in a swirl of wind and leaves, he was gone.

Far away from the Uchiha complex, a gust of wind blew as Sasuke came to a stop at his training ground. But as soon as his feet hit the ground of the rocky clearing, he fell to his knees in pain, desperately gripping his neck to stop the pain radiating from his curse mark. "AARG!!" He managed to growl out as he sat there, feeling the mark pulsate as it desiring to be set free. After a minute or so, the boy shakily stood to his feet. 'Why does this keep acting up?' Shaking his head he forced the thought out of it and began to unpack all of the supplies he had brought with him.

Once he was done with everything he moved out to the middle of where he'll be spending most of his time. Frustration could be seen on his face as he open and closed his hands while looking down at them. With a grunt of concentration, chirping sparks erupted from his now open left hand. "CHIDORI!!" He screamed as he rushed at the boulder before him. But before he made contact he suddenly disappeared, only to reappear on the other side of the rock and slam the crackling ball of chakra into it, resulting in an explosion of rocks and dust.

He would continue zipping around the rock and pummeling it with his fists for hours until he couldn't take any more and fell down exhausted on the rocky ground. "I…I can do more!" He said with the last of his strength before falling into a deep sleep.

As soon as he drifted off to dreams filled with the torture of his brother, a person in dark clothing walked over to his sleeping body. Picking him up, they carried him over to where he had set up a tent. When the person entered the tent with him, a strange green light could be seen from the outside. Stepping out of the tent, the person disappeared in a gust of leaves. Back in the Hokage's office, Tsunade was grumbling over a stack of paperwork she was going to have to get done eventually. Then suddenly with a gust of wind, Shizune appeared before her. "Well?" The Hokage asked in a serious tone.

"The reports were correct, he's been marked. I healed all the injuries he sustained while training out there, but Tsunade-sama…" She said with concern in her voice. "He…he has an extremely dark heart, and he only thinks of his revenge…I think it might be too late for us to do anything."

Hearing that, Tsunade's eyes narrowed and her brow furrowed in a deep scowl. "Keep up what you're doing, the least we can do is to keep him healthy…"

"Hai." Shizune said before she turned around and made her way out of her master's office.

Swiveling her chair around, Tsunade looked out at the giant stone faces above her building. 'Oh Sensei…what would you do…to stop him? To stop Orochimaru?'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The sounds of medical equipment and the hurried and frantic talking of doctors could be heard coming out of a hospital room. Inside that room, Zankoji was being worked on. The doctors hurrying around had just managed to close the massive wound on his abdomen, but outside the room a purple haired woman leaned against the opposite side of the hall, looking in the room through its window. "Well?" A voice said to her from around the corner of the hall way.

"He took quite a beating. Whatever the final attack that did that to his stomach was…we should look out for. From what it seemed like the Himura and his friend work extremely well as a team. When we engage them again, it would be in our best interest to separate all of them." She said in a professional tone.

"Understood, make sure you get out of here when he wakes up…I don't want to lose you in the mayhem." The voice said to Kinme, still staying out of sight. "When he gets under control, rendezvous with me. I'm going to start Stage 2…it should be easy." The man said, shoulder now being seen from around the corner. It looked like he was wearing what looked like a long solid black cloak.

"Hai…Akuhei-sama." With a flicker of the lights in the hallway, he was gone. Slouching against the wall she let out a sigh of relief. "He's finally gone, I hate being so formal and all around him. Damn, just because I'm a woman it doesn't mean I can't speak freely!" Standing up straight she peered into the room and saw the doctors still working on Zankoji and about four IV drips attached to him. 'I hope he's alright, a masterpiece like that body of his…it would be a waste if he didn't make it.' Looking down she now looked at the circular scar that now covered almost his entire abdomen. 'I am so going to kill the bastard who scarred up that perfect chiseled body of his!' She said licking her lips and the thought of Zankoji.

It was then that she heard some commotion coming from within the room before her. "He's waking up!" She heard one of the doctors say, and quickly she made her way away from the room. Back in the room, Zankoji's eyes slowly opened to the blinding florescent lighting of the hospital room. "Welcome back…how are you feeling?"

Looking at the man, Zankoji's mind went back to what had happened to him before he had lost consciousness. Then suddenly his eyes snapped wide and he punched his fist straight through the doctor's chest, blood spraying over the wall behind him. "I lost to a couple of BRATS!!! How do you think I feel?!?!" He screamed at the corpse hanging on his forearm. Pulling his arm out, he then noticed the several other doctors looking at him in horror. The rage of what happened to him finally surfaced fully, and with a guttural scream all ten of his seals activated. Shooting out, each of the chains slammed into and through a victim. Raising them up, and with a demented laugh the chains sliced out of the people and threw their bodies against the wall behind him. With a sick cackle, the room was then filed with the spray of blood and the sounds of metal tearing flesh apart.

His rage was now gone, and his chains slid back into their seals. Looking at the pile of indistinguishable body parts he smiled and turned for the door only to see Kinme leaning against it. "Damn, you really took it out on those poor fools." Strutting over to him she ran her finger down his blood soaked chest with a smile. "You always did look irresistible when you were covered in blood."

Slapping her hand away from him as it snaked its way to his pants he glared at the woman. "Now's not the time Kinme, how many times do I have to tell you to keep your nympho hands to yourself." Shoving past her he grabbed a towel from outside the room and whipped his face and body off. Throwing the now red cloth to the ground he slammed his fist into the wall in front of him. "DAMN!! Those fucking kids!"

With a mischievous laugh, Kinme walked up behind him and leaned on him very close. "Don't worry about that, besides Akuhei-sama just went to start Stage 2." She whispered in his ear. "We have plenty of time to…have fun." She said seductively as she licked his ear.

"God damn it Kinme! Stop that!" He roared, if there was one thing he hated in this world above all else, it would have to be Kinme's extreme perverted side. When he had first met her he had thought it was the best thing in the world, but soon he found out that it was basically aimed at anyone who was deemed attractive by the sex crazed woman. Pushing that out of his mind he walked over to her and reached behind her. Her eyes light up at the thought that he would actually participate in her musing, only to be disappointed when he pulled her spare cloak away and put it on. Turning around he flipped the deep hood over his face, his unique demented smile was the only thing that could be seen. "If he's started Stage 2…then its not long until we can go wild!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Have we gotten any reports on Zankoji's condition?" The daimyo asked one of his servants in an angry voice.

"N-No Ieyasu-sama, we've heard no report back from Kurohyou-san."

'What could have happened to those two…' The gray haired man's thought were interrupted with another servant burst through the door of his throne room.

"Ieyasu-sama! The young master! He's here!"

"WHAT!?!" He shouted, almost jumping out of his chair. "I thought I specifically told everyone to keep him away while this business with Getsurei was still happening!"

"And what business would that be…Otou-sama?" A man in a long solid black cloak said as he entered into the room. Throwing his cloak aside, a man wearing a standard Chunin outfit stood before the Daimyo, except he had the kanji for Lightning embroidered on his back. He had his hair pulled back into a spiky ponytail that started at the base of his head, and a Kumo headband tied loosely around his neck.

"Nothing, nothing at all. He's just taking longer than expected to return from Konoha. But what brings you here Akuhei?" The Daimyo asked, wondering why his son would be out here instead of in Kumo.

"Can't a son come to pay his father a visit?" He said stopping at the base of the stairs leading up to his father's throne. "I mean you must be getting nervous with Nii-san's birthday coming up…your rule is almost at an end." Then with an odd smirk he began to walk up the stairs leading to his father. "Especially…when he's hired a Himura to protect him…and even more so when Zankoji failed to kill them."

Now standing before him father and looking him in the eye, Ieyasu was looking at him in a state of shock. "H-How…"

Reaching out, Akuhei grabbed his father's shoulder and leaned in close to his ear. "I know…because you're rule _is_ at an end…" Then suddenly the crackle of electricity could be heard before the splatter of blood. "I just got tired of waiting."

Looking down, the Daimyo could see his son's crackling and sparking arm driven straight through his chest. "Raiken…I…never should have…taught you it…" He said before he slumped backwards, dead.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Okay this arc is finally moving. I'm really sorry this took so long but I've been swamped with work and writers block no jutsu. Let me tell you, it sucks ass!**

**Once again I'm really sorry this took so long, the next chapter shouldn't be so long. I'll have a lot more time to write in the next two weeks so 32 should be done at least by next weekend. But possibly a little after that.**

**Also I'd like to say that all of the OC's have now been introduced and we even lost one in this chapter!**

**So please review, go ahead. You know you want to, just click that button below that says' go on it! Come on you can do it! Anyway please review or I'll sick Zankoji on you if you don't!! Or possibly Kinme if you do (wink wink).**

**Also I just now have activated anonymous reviews, so now even if you don'thave an acount you can review. So please do!**

**Jutsu List:**

**Raiken- Lightning Fist (Not really a jutsu, it's a Taijutsu style that adds lightning to the strikes, like Jyuken does with raw chakra)**


	32. Preparations in Pine!

**Review Reply:**

**NarutoFanBoy4Life:** Well it wasn't that hard to tell what you were naming him after. I look forward to your continuous reviews!

**SwordofMagus:** Yeah I felt I needed to cement his totally crazy psychotic character…poor doctors…but I have a feeling you're going to hate Sasuke even more after this chapter!

**Tytan83:** Kumo is the Hidden cloud village, the equivalent of Konoha but in the Land of Lightning. Looks like you'll have to wait one more chapter to get the backgrounds for the two brothers.

**Deadly spike: **Yes, I hadn't shown Gai in quite a while, and it was a perfect Gai comedy moment. And it is a shame about Sasuke, but you'll get to see him fall even further in this chapter, you won't be saying poor Sasuke for long.

**The Elven-Spear:** Well he's on track for having the same personality that he had when he left in the manga. Don't worry he won't be leaving for a while.

**Animeskid:** Yeah, Zankoji is quite the poor loser, and he isn't a cannibal.

**Chosha Kurenai:** I've tried to make things get interesting, but unfortunately I don't think we'll be seeing Shikyo again, he was just a simple OC used for some comedy and a running joke I'll be using from then on, haha.

**Trueswipe:** No Hayate doesn't know about Yondaime, only the Shekkeigan. No, that was only a bit of Gai comedy.

**Cloudfightback:** It's a shame you don't like Kinme! Her and her rampant sexuality.

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto, just Arashi or any other OCs I make!

**Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

A pair of blue eyes opened slowly after a wonderful night of sleep, but something was off. Something was definitely different from when he had gone to bed the night before. Taking in his surroundings more he instantly noticed the person in the bed with him, he noticed how his arms were wrapped round this person's body as she slept. How the sweet smell of lavender permeated the air around him, with a smile he pulled her even closer to him. He could feel the ever present warmth from contact with her become greater as he held her close, brushing her dark hair out of the way he smiled and reached down and kissed her softly on the top of her head. "I love you so much Hina-chan…" Arashi said quietly to the love of his life.

Even in her sleep her face turned into a smile as she wriggled even closer to him, letting out a very quiet and satisfied groan. Arashi just was content on sitting there watching her sleep, but soon her pale white eyes opened to take in her surroundings as well. "Hi there." Arashi said playfully when he saw that she was looking at him bug-eyed, not knowing how she got where she was.

Darting up, Hinata's face light up in a bright crimson blush as she separated herself from Arashi. It was then that Hinata's memory of the previous night came back to her, the information about the Kyuubi and Naruto…and about Arashi. Her eyes almost instantly shot down in embarrassment at the predicament she had woken up in. 'I bet Naruto put me in here after I fainted!' She thought as she looked down at the blanket that now only covered the bottom half of her body. "G-Gomen Arashi-kun…N-Naruto-kun must have p-put me in here after I fain…after I fell –a-asleep."

"W-What were you doing fainting around Naruto?" Arashi managed to stammer out, his mind desperately trying not to focus on the fact that Hinata's jacket had unzipped in her sleep. He was fighting to keep his eyes locked with her's after catching a glimpse of the treasures hidden within the jacket.

"H-He…I mean we talked…he told m-me a-about…" She said as her own mind was distracted by the very tight black T-shirt that Arashi wears under his jacket. She knew that this was an important fact she was bringing up, but she couldn't stop basking in his scent that she had picked up from in her sleep, and the sight of Arashi's defined muscles.

"He actually told you?" Getting a nod back from his girlfriend the thoughts of what he could have told her came into his mind. "What all did he say?"

Forcing her mind on the conversation she pulled her legs underneath her and faced Arashi who was now sitting cross legged with a curious look on his face. She couldn't help but smile when she saw the cute look on his face as he awaited her answer. "H-He…told me about the K-Kyuubi…" Arashi's face turned into a serious one as he leaned in a little closer as if awaiting the most important bit of information. "And he told me about…Yondaime-sama."

Hearing that Arashi promptly fell back onto his back in shock. "That idiot! He wasn't supposed to tell you that! Just about…" He said loudly before catching the volume of his voice. "Just about Kyuubi…" He said much quieter, now laying down and looking up at the ceiling he patted the bed next to him telling Hinata that she should lay down like him. Doing so she soon was lying down at his side looking up like he was, the large and warm blanket now covering both of them again. Turning to his side Arashi took Hinata's hand in his and looked deep into her eyes. "I wanted to tell you about that…"

Feeling his hand holding her's under the blanket she had an unexplainable urge. Scooting closer to him she continued looking into the blue eyes she would never tire of staring into. "It doesn't matter…I know now." She said quietly as a blush spread across her face, leaning in closer she kissed his lightly on his lips before pulling back with a smile.

Arashi was stunned, it was the first time she had taken any initiative in contact between them and he liked it. A slight blush appeared on his cheeks as his mind began to run wild with images that he prayed Yondaime couldn't see because he was still asleep. "I know…" He said before the both of them couldn't control themselves any longer. Their lips then met in a kiss that was so vastly different that any other they had shared, it was filled with passion and desire. Kissing each other deeply as they laid on their sides, Hinata's free hand slipped up and ran through Arashi's hair while his was now grabbing onto her waist and was pulling her closer to him.

Never had Hinata felt the way she did now, her whole body felt like it was on fire as they assaulted each other's mouth. Soon the kiss became more than even what it had started to be, not knowing why, without a word between them they both opened their mouths and their tongues began to move together in almost a dance. Breaking for air they looked deeply at each other and what they were doing, taking her hand down and out of his hair she placed it softly against his chest. "I-I love you Arashi-kun…" She then said sweetly while looking into his eyes.

"I know." He responded before their lips met in another passion filled kiss, all of their pent up feelings that they had for each other ever since Arashi had to go on the search for Tsunade came out through this kiss. They were no longer just on their sides, but Arashi had rolled so that Hinata was now on top of him, their lips still locked feverishly. Pushing the sides of her unzipped jacket aside his hands came to a rest on either side of her waits, embracing her as their kiss became wilder. He even had slipped his hands underneath her undershirt and was now holding onto her soft and warm body, but it all came crashing to an end when the door to the room suddenly opened.

"OOOH MY GOD!!!" Naruto screamed as he looked down on the couple before him. Instantly they both separated and ended up on opposite sides of the room with their faces looking more like tomatoes than their faces. "If I knew I had to see that! I wouldn't have put you in here in the first place Hinata-chan!" He said to the two with a mischievous grin on his face. Now leaning against the door he grinned at the two as they calmed down from the fright he had caused them.

"You could have knocked you jackass!!" Arashi then yelled to his friend as he pulled up the discarded blanket and found his jacket. After zipping it up he continued to glare at the smiling blond. But ignoring him, he walked over to Hinata who still was beat red and was looking horribly embarrassed. Leaning in close he brushed some of her hair aside so he could get right next to her ear. "Thank you Hina-chan, I really enjoyed that…" He said in a whisper that sent shivers down her spine, but after pulling back he gave her a slight peck on the cheek. "I love you too." She only blushed brighter and smiled wide.

Naruto was grinning like a fool as he watched the two part ways and Arashi make his way for the door. But when he got next to Naruto he stopped and glared heavily at the boy then suddenly punched him in the stomach. "KNOCK NEXT TIME BAKA!!" Arashi proclaimed before he left the room to go see Hayate and come up with some plans for completing the mission.

"Naruto-kun! Are you alright?" Hinata asked after she zipped up her jacket and made her way over to him. While presently on the floor after getting hit by Arashi, he had a huge smile on his face like he was holding back something. Apparently he was because he then burst out laughing, rolling around on the floor.

"Did you see that!? He was so freaking serious! He soooo can't take a joke!!!"

Hinata couldn't help not giggling at Naruto; he had played along with Arashi's jab just to get the reaction out of him. But as with most things Naruto did, he didn't know when to cut it out.

In the main room of the house, Arashi found Hayate sitting down drinking a cup of tea with the old monk and Getsurei. Sitting down in one of the chairs, the Himura then let out a sigh that soon gave way to a large smirk on his face as what he really had just done came back to the forefront of his mind. "What the hell happened up there?" Getsurei said with an annoyed tone in his voice.

"N-Nothing happened!" Arashi replied with a slight blush at actually telling him what he had been doing. Sitting back down at the large table he looked across it and at Hayate, who was sporting an oddly bright grin at the boy. Shutting his eyes momentarily, he pushed all thoughts out of his mind and focused it on the mission. Upon opening them he looked down at a map of the continent that Hayate had been looking at. "So do we have any plans for actually getting into the Land of Lightning?"

"Of course I do…" Hayate said before breaking out in a spasm of violent coughs. "Sorry about that…but since this is your mission, what do you think we should do?"

With a sigh and a roll of his eyes, Getsurei stood up and headed outside once again. By this time Naruto and Hinata had finally come down, and with a nod of Hayate's head Naruto grumbled as he went out behind the stuck up prick. All the while Arashi was now looking over the map closely, and then his eyes light up as if he had figured something out. "I got it!" Hayate raised an eyebrow to the boy, wondering if he actually figured out the answer he had come up with. "Because of the way the Land of Lightning is shaped, if we went in on foot through the bottom, we would be far too close to Kumo for comfort…But if we somehow got a boat, we could bypass Kumo and make it farther up the coast and closer to the Capital."

"Perfect, you came up with the correct strategy. But we have one problem, don't we?" Hayate remarked with a smile, continuing to test the new Chunin.

"We don't have a boat…" Turning to the aged monk Arashi looked at him with seriousness in his eyes. "Ekim-san, is there any way that you could find us a boat? You'll be reimbursed by Konoha once this mission is finished."

"It would be my honor to assist your mission, especially to get Ieyasu out of ruling. You shall have a boat capable of getting you to the Capital in three days." He said with a smile as he adjusted his glasses.

Arashi just looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "I've already made the arrangements Arashi; I just wanted to see if you could come to the same conclusion as me." Hayate proclaimed. Standing up he slung his sword around his back and motioned for Hinata and Arashi to follow him. Stepping outside he stopped to lean on the door frame as he watched Naruto and Getsurei talking about something. "Oi, Naruto! We've got three days before we start the last leg of the mission, you know what time it is…training time!"

Soon the four found themselves at the edge of the woods next to Ekim's house. "You know the drill, Hinata you're with Naruto, Arashi you're with me…" He said lazily as he waved his hand around in the air, pointing to perhaps a place for Naruto and Hinata to go spar in. But when they didn't budge from their spots he started to wonder what was up. "Is there a problem?"

"Anou…c-could I train a-alone actually?" Hinata asked meekly, not really wanting to refuse training with Naruto, but she had her reasons. "I…I'm working o-on something new and w-would like to w-work on it alone Hayate-sensei."

Hayate could see that it might be a good idea to let her train as she pleases, Hayate didn't know much about Jyuken and really wasn't anyone who would be able to help her in any sort of training. But he turned his head to Naruto who also hadn't moved. "I want to wok on some new stuff too!" The energetic boy proclaimed, Hayate had heard enough about the boy's notorious pranks and figured that something 'new' could possibly be harmful or embarrassing for him if he were to supervise.

"And you?" The Jonin asked in a sarcastic voice to Arashi who had his hand resting on Heijin's hilt.

"Actually I sort of wanted to do a little training with Hina-chan. I haven't done any good Hyuuga work for quite a while…but if she just wants to work on what she has planned, that's fine with me." Arashi replied, it was still a bit strange to Hayate just what abilities Arashi had due to his Shekkeigan.

"Tell you what…" He started off before letting out a couple hard coughs. "I do have something I want to teach you, but after a while you can go over with Hinata and do some training. That way she gets to work on what she wants to and you get to learn what I have to teach you." Getting nods from all three he assumed that they had all come to a decision on just what to do with the day. "We do have two more days to train after this you know…anyway, let's go!"

Soon Naruto had left in search of a secluded spot in the woods and Hinata had made her way back past the house and down on a small beach. Moving far enough into the pines so that no one could see them, Hayate stopped in an area he felt would be best from what he was going to teach the boy. "So what are you showing me?" The Himura asked calmly, he figured that it had to be another kenjutsu stance or attack pattern.

Reaching down Hayate picked up a large rock about the size of his fist and hurled it at Arashi as fast as he could. With a shriek of panic Arashi quickly jumped to the side and to safety. "Do you see what you did right there?"

"ARE YOU CRAZY!?!" Arashi screamed back at him. "I almost couldn't dodge that!"

"And what would you have done if you couldn't have dodged it?" Hayate asked, an eyebrow raised in waiting on Arashi's answer. After a few moments of silence he figured that Arashi didn't exactly know. "Just like Kakashi-sensei said, you lack any kind of good defense." Arashi sighed hard; he had gotten this speech several times and was just about fed up with it. "I know that its hard for you, you're fast so you think that you can dodge and evade until you get an opening to attack. Or you strike first so that you don't have to worry about defending. You also rely on your Kekkei Genkai's assimilated abilities to help you see better and predict movements. Defense is a hard concept for you to do; your thoughts are very attack oriented. But to be a good Chunin, or any other higher position, you need to think defensively." He said with his arms crossed and in a critical tone of voice. Leaning down he picked up another rock like the one he had thrown earlier and tossed it to Arashi. "No throw that at me like I did to you and I'll show you what I'll be teaching you."

"Uhh...okay." Arashi said before throwing the rock with all his might at Hayate's chest. In a swift and fluid motion Hayate pulled out his sword and held it out horizontal to his body. His free hand pressed against the flat side of the tip of the sword and an odd glow coming from the blade. Just as the rock came close enough it bounced off of what looked like open air to Arashi. "What the hell!?"

"Hahaha, that was my reaction the first time I saw it too." He said with a smile while he walked closer to him. "You see what I just did was to make a sort of chakra shield to block incoming attacks." Getting a confused look from his student, Hayate decided to go into more detail. "By holding Mizuki with both hands and channeling chakra in from both sides, the chakra doesn't escape but instead accumulates and can be formed into a wider area than just the blade itself. It's not necessarily a jutsu but a form of defensive chakra control. The more you warp the shape around the blade, the bigger you can make the shield."

"Can you show me one more time?" Arashi asked, getting a nod from Hayate as he got into position. Holding the blade out before him Hayate quickly formed a shield in front on him. "Byakugan!" The Hyuuga abilities he used activated, showing him a glowing shield of chakra extending down from the hilt and tip of the blade and coming to a curved edge at about Hayate's waist and well above his head. "So you're spreading the chakra out from the blade by focusing the flow of chakra to three different points, the middle of the sword, a point above your head, and your waist." Arashi stated observationally.

"That's right…now we're going to be working on this until I say it's alright to go train with Hinata." The Jonin said as he tossed a rock back and forth between his hands, seeing this Arashi could only gulp at the thought of what was in store for him.

Several hours later Hinata was still in the same spot she had originally gone to. She was down on her knees and looking down at one of the many ripple marks in the sand she had made through out the day. 'It's still not working…' She thought as she moved slightly to the side and above undisturbed sand. "Ha!" He cried as she thrust her index and middle fingers into the sand and dispersed chakra from the tips. But she saw the same results she had been getting all day, a gentle even ripple pattern had appeared around her fingers that matched the dispersion of her chakra. 'It's not doing what I want…wait a second.' Looking closer she smiled as she saw a slight difference between her last one and the one she had just made. "I can do this…"

"Do what?" Arashi said behind her, causing her to jump out of surprise and come down on what she had just done. "Oh, I'm sorry Hina-chan! I didn't mean to scare you!" He said in a concerned tone as he helped her up and brushed some sand off of her jacket.

"I-It's ok Arashi-kun…I-I was just surprised." She said, looking down at being so shaken up by his sudden appearance. But when she looked up she gasped, looking at him fully she could see that he had taken some kind of beating. "What h-happened to you?"

With a grin and a laugh, Arashi reached back and rubbed the back of his neck. "Hayate-sensei had some tough training for me…those rocks sure did hurt." After his little laugh he looked back to see Hinata looking very concerned, perhaps they looked worse than he though. "I'm fine, really! Now what should we do for some training? I haven't done any Jyuken in a while…what do you think we should do?"

Thinking for a second Hinata's expression became brighter as she thought of the perfect thing. "I know, we c-could work on the Kaiten? Y-You should have a d-defensive move like that A-Arashi-kun…I mean y-you…you don't have anything to p-protect yourself do you?"

But she didn't get the reaction she thought she would, he crossed his arms almost immediately after she said the word Kaiten and his expression turned more to an aggravated one. "I already know that, it's all that I've been hearing lately. I don't have a defense this and you need to protect yourself that…if it's so apparent to everyone else, wouldn't you think I would know about it anyways!?" But looking back at Hinata she had a hurt look on her face, a look that just made Arashi sick to his stomach. He had caused it and it made him feel horrible. Reaching out he pulled her into a gentle hug and rubbed her back. "Gomen Hina-chan, I didn't mean for that to come out at you. It's just that everyone seems to be able to do those sort of things so well…and I…I just can't."

Fully enjoying the closeness of the hug, Hinata was also trying to think on the subject. 'He really doesn't like people pointing out his flaws…but his flaws are what makes him, him…' Pulling back from the closeness she kissed him lightly on the cheek and was determined to figure out what was going on. "A-Arashi-kun, it's alright…" She said with a slight smile, sitting down in the sand she motioned for him to do the same. "W-Why do you t-think this bothers y-you so much?"

Sitting down next to her he knew the reason why but didn't know if he was going to be able to tell her. With a sigh he began to explain why he felt it bothered him as much as it did. "You heard about Naruto's fight with Gaara and what happened in it. Well after it was all over and I had time to think about it, all of the times I've gotten injured came into my mind. It made me feel like I wasn't capable of protecting myself and the scars I have from that fight remind me everyday about it. I want to be able to protect those I love…but how can I if I can't even protect myself?! You told me that after I went down fighting Haku that it was Naruto that defeated him…the same thing happened with Gaara, Naruto defeated him when I got hurt. Even when we went looking for Baa-chan he did it, I got taken down and he ended up beating the guy!"

'So it all boils down to not wanting to lose to Naruto…I almost forget sometimes that they're rivals. Both of them are striving for the same goal, but despite that they're more like brothers than rivals. When I think about rivalries I see Neji-niisan and Lee-san, or Sasuke and Naruto. They're more bitter about it, but maybe it would be better if it were like that with Arashi and Naruto…they both care for each other so much, yet don't want the other to surpass them…it must be frustrating to have so many conflicting feelings about one person.' Hinata though, trying to find something to say in response to what she had heard. "W-Well, then you should t-try your hardest s-so you w-won't need Naruto's help…besides…you p-protected me…" She said while blushing, the thoughts of his passionate finish to their battle with Zankoji.

"Well that's different…that's you…" He said with a slight blush of his own. "Thanks Hina-chan, I feel a lot better! Now let's take a crack at that Kaiten." He proclaimed as he stood up, helping Hinata up he was met with a small giggle at his quick turnaround and enthusiasm to train.

"No, I think y-you were right. W-We should do some Jyuken...you d-do remember how to Jyuken spar, don't you?"

"Of course I do, no releasing of chakra. Just straight up Taijutsu." Arashi replied as the two of them separated and slid into their Jyuken stances. Both of them now faced each other in identical postures as the veins around their eyes bulged and their Byakugan activated. Arashi could now see everything around him, but he focused his vision directly on his girlfriend. After focusing he could see her Chakra Circulatory System, he could see differences in it from the last time they had sparred; it was bigger and held more chakra. He attributed it to her training while he was out looking for Tsunade, then focusing more at the match at hand he shot forward at Hinata.

Arashi sped towars Hinata with his palms open and pulled back for a strike. But his plans were soon foiled as Hinata ducked under his attack with ease and landed a hard double palm thrust to his chest, knocking him back a few feet. "When charging l-like that, you should focus m-more on counterattacks than on w-where you're going to strike." With a nod Arashi closed the distance and engaged her in the deadly Taijutsu, going in for a strike only to have it slapped away at the last second, rebounding off the block to counter an incoming blow from her. Suddenly Arashi dropped under one of her thrusts and caught her with a spinning leg sweep, a move he had picked up from watching her in the Chunin exams. But it didn't go as planned, flipping backwards from the sweep she pushed up on her hands and came back into her stance as she landed. With a smile he dashed back at her, weaving back and forth between her increasingly swift attacks he managed to get a slight poke at her midsection before his arm was swiped away. With a grin he knew he had landed a blow, if it had been a real fight that would have damaged her liver. But this was short lived as she pivoted on her left foot and spun, ending up behind him. Several swift and sharp pokes later he leapt back, making some distance between them.

"And what would that have done if this were real?" Arashi asked, slightly curious of the actual effects that this training could produce.

"Well, your s-strike would have c-caused some l-liver damage…but my six w-would have shut down y-your brain signals to your legs." She replied, smiling somewhat. She had never had this much fun sparring, it was always much different when she did so with Neji. Those days were filled with getting beaten again and again, but she was fighting evenly with Arashi, even overtaking him at times.

"Damn, you can forget just how devastating Jyuken can be!" Then suddenly he disappeared, Hinata hadn't figured that he would use his speed to augment his Jyuken. But she didn't see him, instead she felt a poke on her upper back.

'He couldn't have figured…' She thought as she turned around quickly to see Arashi sailing through the air, his arm extended so that his whole body fit within the small blind spot of the Byakugan.

"So it's not just me who can't see there…" He said with a smile as he landed in the sand. "What's up with that? Is there any reason that we can't see there?"

"N-No, not any specific r-reason. It's just the o-one spot that the Byakugan d-doesn't pick up. But when did you notice it?"

"Back during my Rasengan training, I was using the Byakugan to check out my own chakra flow and I noticed I couldn't see a section of a tree behind me. After a little bit I figured out where the blind spot was originating from."

"Rasengan…so t-that's what t-that spiraling blue ball was?" She asked, getting a nod from Arashi, she smiled slightly and dropped back into her stance while her boyfriend did the same. Dashing forward Hinata went of the offensive, a flurry of palm strikes were thrust forward only to be evaded and blocked by Arashi. But quickly she kicked high, nicking his shoulder and throwing him off balance. Taking the opening she connected with a palm thrust to the stomach and several strikes going up his chest. Every strike was perfectly on target over a tenketsu, finishing the attack she connected with a swift palm strike under Arashi's chin, knocking him back and to the ground. As soon as he fell to the ground Hinata realized what she had done and rushed to his side. "I'm so sorry Arashi-kun! I didn't mean to do that!"

Sitting up Arashi had a large grin on his face and was rubbing his chin. "Damn Hina-chan, when did you get this good? You weren't anywhere near this good the last time we sparred!" Hinata blushed at the complement and helped him up. "You shouldn't be sorry either, we were sparring…it happens." Leaning in he kissed her on her forehead and wrapped an arm around her. "It think we've done enough for today…" He chuckled as they started to make their way back to the house, while on the way Arashi held out his hand and formed a small sheet of ice over it that he promptly placed against his chin where he had been hit. But on the way back his mind wandered back to the training he had done with Hayate. 'These next two days are going to be hell.'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was finally the day, the day she would become a Konoha Shinobi. Sasame now stood before Tsunade, they were both standing in the practice grounds outside the Academy and accompanied by both Shizune and Iruka. In Iruka's hand he held the object Sasame was after, as per her requests it was exactly the same as her beanie she always wore except that a Konoha plate had been attached to the forehead of it. "Let's get this over with." Tsunade groaned, she would have gladly just given the headband to the girl, but Shizune was adamant about upholding the tradition of Konoha or something like that. "Here." The Hokage said as she tossed a kunai to the girl who just looked at it confused.

"I'm not going to have to fight you am I?!" She asked, completely scared out of her mind at the moment. The thought of going against not only the Hokage, but one of the Sannin! She had heard of Tsunade long before she had even came to Konoha and knew the tales of her battles.

But in response Tsunade only laughed at the girl. "If I had to fight everyone who went for Genin we'd have a lot of dead kids on our hands!" After composing herself she pointed to a target set up across the yard they were in. "Hit that target."

'Easy!' Sasame thought, taking aim she et the kunai fly and sure enough it hit straight on, bulls eye!

"Okay, you did fine on that…now let's see a Bunshin no Jutsu." Tsunade said after seeing her pass her weapons test.

Nodding her head, Sasame focused her chakra and molded it just like she had been taught to by her clan. "Bunshin no Jutsu!" She said and four perfect copies of her appeared at her side, each with a confident smirk on their faces. "What else?" The five of them said before the clones faded away.

"Nothing else, you pass." Tsunade said nonchalantly.

"WHAT!?! That's all there is?! No fighting? No challenges??"

"No, we weed out the unworthy by having the Jonin test them further…but if you want more…" Tsunade said with a devilish smile. "Land a blow on Iruka and you pass!"

Looking frantically between the two Iruka didn't know if she was serious or not. "You're kidding right? Hokage-sama?" The grin on the woman's face simply got bigger. "Oh crap…" Was all he got out before Sasame raced forward with a punch ready. Leaping backwards he landed on a tree branch and put the beanie he had been holding inside his vest. He flipped backwards again as Sasame jumped up to him and barely missed his face with a spinning kick. Landing he took a defensive Taijutsu stance and awaited the onslaught he was expecting.

"URAAA!!" She bellowed while dishing out hard punches and kicks, but every single one of them was effortlessly knocked aside or dodged. She could see that it was going to be harder than she expected to land a hit on the man. He was Chunin after all and she didn't think they just handed out the title. She wasn't getting anywhere with what she was doing so she had to think about what to do.

'What's with her? Normal Genin aren't this good at Taijutsu!' Iruka thought as he ducked under a high kick and then immediately dodged to the side to avoid an uppercut.

When she saw him plant his feet again the opportunity had opened up and she went with her new plan. Looking past him she suddenly pointed at the door leading to the Academy. "NARUTO-KUN'S BACK!!!"

"What?! Where??" He asked in excited surprise as he looked from side to side. But when he realized what she had done it was far too late and her fist was already planted on his cheek. It didn't knock him down but just made him stumble backwards. "You sneaky little…"

"You pass, good job Sasame." Tsunade said after letting out a laugh at the stupefied man who was rubbing his cheek. "You can give it to her now Iruka."

"Oh yeah, sorry Hokage-sama." Pulling the hat out of his vest he handed it over to the girl who smiled in joy and replaced her beanie with it as soon as it was in her hands. With the success of attaining her goal she suddenly ran off back home with a smile on her face. "Uhhh, Hokage-sama…shouldn't we tell her about getting a Sensei and all that?"

"I don't think it was about that…but I'll give her a couple hours until she realizes that she needs a team and all. But she's a tricky one…you really fell for that one bad!" She said with her hands on her hips as she walked beside Iruka and back into the Tower, towards her office. "Don't you have somewhere to be Shizune?"

The woman in black then blushed at what her master was saying. "Hai, and I'll go and continue my surveillance of Sasuke after it. Ja ne!" With that she ran off with much the same expression Sasame had on her face when she left.

"What was that about Hokage-sama?"

"She's got a date…with Genma…again." The Hokage said, she was so relieved that they had gotten back together after she had been gone for so long. The main reason was now she didn't have to listen to Shizune prattle on about him all the time. It had really gotten on her nerves before they came back to Konoha.

Elsewhere a certain Uchiha was dashing through the trees next to his little training area. In doing so he was going as fast as he could, little more that a blur of black he was going through mock Taijutsu as he sped around, making sharp turns around the treetops to improve his agility and smashing through any branch that got in his way. Landing back at the open space next to his small tent he sighed and whipped the sweat from his face with his headband. Looking around he could feel someone was there. "Come out, I know you're there…"

With a rustle of leaves, someone came out that he wasn't expecting. It was Lee, he had been expecting Sakura or Kiba, perhaps even Shino or Kurenai, but Lee? "Sakura-chan is very worried about you Sasuke, you should come back to the hospital." The green clad boy stated, in almost a commanding voice.

Sasuke then remembered his infatuation with his pink haired team mate and understood why he would be the one there. Turning his back to him, Sasuke began to walk back to his supplies. "Go home; you're wasting your time Lee."

"No I am not! Sakura-chan is very worried about you, and you gave Kiba-san a concussion when you came out here. Everyone is worried about you and wants you to be okay." He said, walking closer to the Uchiha.

"You sound just like Kiba too, what makes you think I even care that they're worried?" He snapped back, glaring at Lee and stopping him in his tracks.

"I know that deep down you really do care; I know that you know what being alone is like. I have heard all about your clan, my parents both died when I was very young, and I never really had any friends until I met my own team. So I know the feeling, I can relate." Taking a step forward he extended his hand almost in pleading. "You don not have to be alone, you have your team and other people. They all care about you; you do not have to train alone."

Looking back at Lee were eyes filled with the glare of anger. "No you don't understand Lee, its not being alone. It's the…darkness…when everything you know and love is taken from you so harshly…all you can think about, is anger, hatred, and even revenge…and no one can save you!"

Lee could tell that there was nothing he could say that would sway the Uchiha's heart, he was right though. Lee knew nothing of the feelings Sasuke was speaking of and frankly didn't ever want to. Turning around with a defeated look he began to walk back the way he had come. "Then there is nothing I can do to help you." Then under his breath he muttered something Sasuke didn't hear. "Gomen, Sakura-chan."

"Not exactly…" This caught Lee's attention, making him turn back around and look at Sasuke. "Fight me, right here; right now…I have to get even from what you did to me in the Chunin Exams."

Lee knew that Sasuke wasn't the weak kid he had beaten up before the exams anymore; he knew just how powerful he had become. Knowing all this his face couldn't stop from smiling. Here was his opportunity, both in finally taking down a proclaimed genius and following his Nindo, but also possibly coming onto Sakura's radar even more with this show of strength. Turning back towards the Uchiha he continued with his smile as he slid into his normal Taijutsu stance. Seeing this Sasuke did as well, both of them eyeing each other up and down. Then with the slightest shift of body weight, making his foot slide back an inch or so, instantly Sasuke could tell the attack was coming. In an instant Lee was in midair and right before Sasuke. "Konoha Senpuu!" He yelled as he spun for a kick. Seeing the leg coming in for an impact, Sasuke ducked under it and smirked when he saw the second leg coming straight for his face. It was the exact same thing he had used on him the first time they had battled. But just as Lee was about to send Sasuke careening across the ground, Sasuke caught his leg and brought it to a stop.

"Now it's my turn!" Moving fast, Sasuke punched out with his other hand to strike Lee who was still in midair. But he was stopped when he felt Lee's hand plant on his head, with a punch Lee had moved himself up and away from the punch and then very swiftly rotated around his pivot on Sasuke's head and landed a backhanded hit to Sasuke's neck. "GAH!!" He coughed up as he skidded across the ground, rolling with his momentum he regained his footing and glared at the Genin in front of him. "You've gotten better…"

"As have you." Lee replied with a smile while in his Taijutsu stance. 'He has gotten much faster than the last time we fought…I saw it in his fight against Gaara. I might have to take them off…Gai-sensei.' He thought as he smile shifted into a scowl, this fight was going to get serious soon, he just didn't know exactly when.

But his thoughts were soon answered when he saw Sasuke do two hand signs and inhale heavily. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!!" He screamed as a massive stream of fire sprayed out of his mouth, covering the direction he sent it in flames. 'Hn.' He thought when he didn't see anything in the blast area once he stopped his fire stream. This was changed when he suddenly spotted Lee high in the air, doing something with his legs.

"It is time to take this up a level!" Lee yelled, both of his weights now in his hands he rotated quickly in the air and let the weights fly at Sasuke. First one and then the other, Sasuke had no clue what they were and looked with wide eyes as they rocketed towards him.

Jumping backwards he avoided the first weight as hit impacted the earth, resulting in a small earthquake and a rather large crater. His eyes went even wider as he saw the damage caused by the weight and the fact his was now airborne and a second one was coming straight for him. Locking his eyes with the incoming weight, his eyes changed into the Sharingan quickly. 'I still have some time!' He thought, at the last moment he reached out and bumped the side of the projectile with perfect timing, this was enough to rotate his body so that he wouldn't take the hit straight on. Instead it grazed the side of right shoulder and rocketed past it, taking out several trees on impact. Landing, Sasuke winced in pain and grabbed his shoulder. Looking up he saw Lee land, completely unscathed from his fire assault. "Kuso!"

"It was about time you get serious." Lee said as he assumed his stance.

Taking a second to take in the situation, Sasuke moved his arm around, rotating in to feel the movement he had. After a few rotations of his arm, he smirked when he felt that he was perfectly fine, it wouldn't affect him other than a nagging pain. But looking at Lee, there wasn't a scratch or burn on him. 'If he had those weights on the entire time…he's going to be even faster…' His face then shifted into a confident smirk. "Good, it's time I stopped playing around as well."

Suddenly Lee was hit hard with a knee to his gut, he hadn't even seen it. Buckling over his coughed hard, but then was hit once more with a spinning kick from the Uchiha. Skidding back through the dusty ground they were fighting on he managed to roll into his stance. His eyes locked onto Sasuke who was standing in the identical stance as he was. 'So this is his true speed…I'll have to match it.' In a blur he disappeared from Sasuke's sight.

Reappearing in midair and behind him, he was poised to come down hard on him with a leg drop. But his leg was caught as it came down. Looking down at the hand grabbing onto it he was met with the red eyes of the Sharingan. But grabbing onto Sasuke's hand he rolled back and planted his other hand on the ground, moving his body he then shot Sasuke off like a catapult due to the hold he had on him. Sasuke had been thrown off towards the fast approaching tree line. But instead of crashing through them, he turned his body and made contact with his feet. Jumping off it, he shot back at Lee with his fist pulled back and ready for attack. "AARHH!!" He yelled as he struck out at him.

But Lee had seen this and easily caught his punch, he did the same with his second punch thrown as well. Not the two of them were both glaring at each other, Sasuke not being able to move due to Lee's grasp. "Why are you doing this? Why must you push everyone away?"

Sasuke's face twisted into a foul scowl at the boy, without being able to get out he was almost forced to sit there and listen to what he had to say. "You wouldn't understand! My brother…I have to kill my brother and avenge my family!! To do so I have to be the best, no one can hold me back and no one can be better than me!" Pulling his feet up he delivered a hard double kick to Lee's chest that released him from his grasp, but in the process of doing so the grip on Sasuke's right hand had been very tight and the force of pulling away had done some bad damage to his shoulder. Now there was some distance between them and Sasuke's glare was met with an enlightened look from Lee.

'Sakura chan must have told him about the fights in the Finals…he must want to be superior to Naruto and Arashi.' Lee's eyes met with Sasuke's Sharingan and he knew that he would have to come up with some things to perhaps get him to go back to the hospital. "Shunning those who care about you is not going to make you stronger than Naruto!"

This seemingly struck a nerve with Sasuke, because his stance shifted entirely as he put his left hand facing down and his right hand clamped onto the base of his left after making several hand signs. "I am stronger than that dobe!!" He yelled as his hand erupted in crackling electricity. "Chidori…" He said softly under his breath.

"Crap!" Le said wide eyed as he watched Sasuke rocket off towards him, the deadly sparking arm pulled back. 'Got to move fast!' He thought, closing his eyes he concentrated his chakra around his head more a moment. 'Kaimon, the Gate of Opening…Kai!' He thought, with the first gate open he could feel the surge of power flow through him, the promise of superior speed, and the confidence to use it on his incoming opponent.

Sasuke was getting closer by the millisecond, eyes locked they both knew that this was a deciding point in their battle, either the ending point or the turning point. "RAAGH!!" Sasuke screamed as he thrust his arm out to connect his attack.

But even his Sharingan was deceived at the close range by the speed shown by Lee with the first gate opened. At the very last moment, Lee crouched down, effectively ducking under the blow. It had been so close that the crackling chakra had severed a couple hairs as they fell under the attack. Sasuke stared wide eyed at the now smirking Lee as he sat in a crouch right in front of his exposed chest. Then in an instant he started to pummel Sasuke with devastating blows to his stomach and chest. Ending in a hard kick, he sent Sasuke flying back and crashing into the massive boulder riddled with Chidori blast holes. Looking at Sasuke as he fell down to his knees Lee scowled down at the boy. He could feel the after effects of using the first gate, his breathing had gotten heavier, the pain in his limbs had skyrocketed to an almost unbearable level, and even his vision was somewhat fuzzy. 'He almost got me; he really had gotten incredibly strong…' "I will take you back to the hospital Sasuke, Sakura-chan will be relieved." His feelings of victory were shot down when what he thought was Sasuke suddenly poofed into the form of a battered log. "Shit!"

But it was too late; the chirping sound of the Chidori could be heard off to his right. "CHIDORI!!!" Just as he turned towards where the sound was coming from he was met with the smirking, Sharingan lit face of Sasuke. In a last ditch effort to escape he tried to turn and fall to the ground, but it wouldn't help. Sasuke's Chidori shredded through the outside of Lee's hip. Falling to the ground and screaming in pain, Lee began to writhe in extreme pain, all the tendons and ligaments to his leg had been severed and he was bleeding profusely. "Fool, you should never have…" Was all he could get out before a senbon suddenly pierced through his left shoulder; the projectile had hit a pressure point and instantly knocked the Uchiha out.

In a gust of wind the forms of Shizune ad Genma appeared. "Shizune-chan! He's been badly injured!" Genma called out as he looked over the now unconscious boy in green. Casting a scowl back at Sasuke he shook his head disappointedly.

When she looked down and saw the extent of what Sasuke had done she gasped hard and fell to her knees. Her hands engulfed in the healing green chakra she quickly cut off the blood flow leading towards the wound, at least he wouldn't bleed to death. "We have to get them back to the hospital!" She said after looking over at Sasuke and seeing the tell tale signs of severe shoulder trauma and a broken rib, apparently he had been hit once before he had done the Kawarimi. Turning to Genma she gave him a grateful look while he lifted Lee's body up carefully. "I guess were going to have to trust your 'feelings' more often Genma-kun. But we need to hurry, Lee needs heavy surgery and only Tsunade-sama can do it." The couple then frantically sped off towards the hospital. 'Sasuke is going to have to be restrained in his room…he runs off too much.'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ah, this feels so good, like my destiny has come to fruition." Akuhei said as he sat in the throne of the Daimyo, his legs crossed and his fingers laced under his chin. Before him kneeled Zankoji, Kinme, and Oki. The three of them were wearing their gray cloaks over their normal cloths. "Now to business…have we gotten any word of my dear brother?"

Stepping up the shortest one of the three stood up, his face and features still hidden by his cloak. "No sightings or any kind of contact has been seen within the country. It's safe to say that they haven't crossed our boarders yet, it's entirely possible that they are recuperating from they scuffle with the laughing idiot back there."

"Hey jackass! You won't be hearing me laugh after I slaughter you, Oki!" Zankoji roared at the short man.

Ignoring the two, the Kumo Chunin on the throne simply held up a map of the continent and looked hard at it. "Let's see…" Looking at the area that they had fought Zankoji he began to think on what they would do, after all for Getsurei to ascend to Daimyo he would need to be in the Capital on his birthday. "Due to your rather idiotic assault on them…they now know that we're actively attacking them. They would have factored that into their plans for getting here. They only have six days before dear brother's birthday, and if he's not here by then I get named Daimyo instantly! The good thing is that time frame also works for us, its short enough I can keep Father's death secret until I either do away with Brother, or get the title by default." But looking at the map his gaze squinted in thought. "Now how are they going to come?"

"Simple, we just go down to the boarder and wait for them to cross it. We can slaughter them there, then you get what you want, then we all get what we want!" Kinme said, licking her lips at the thought of the promise she had been given in order to get her on Akuhei's side.

"Wrong…that would be too simple, they would know that's what we would think. Plus it would take too long to get here. I know my brother and there is no way that he would let one of those Shinobi carry him so they could travel in good time. No…they're going a faster way…they're going by sea." Pointing down at the map his traces a path from the coast nearest the Land of Fire, on up to the closest costal point to the Capital. "There…we'll be waiting for them right here."

"So do I get to slaughter that Himura soon?!" Zankoji proclaimed happily, letting out his distinct mad laugh afterwards.

"Of course…we will all get to bask in the glory of their deaths. It won't be too long, lat most we're looking at five days." Akuhei said, a dark tone reverberating through his voice and an evil glint in his eye.

Many, many miles away Arashi had finally put the last of their supplies on the ship that was now anchored in the water outback of Ekim's house. "We're all set Hayate-sensei!" He called out, everyone else was already on the boat and sitting around. Naruto was excitedly dashing about and looking out at the sea, Hinata was sitting calmly off to the side, a spot right next to her ready for when Arashi came over, she had an oddly confident smile on her face. Arashi hadn't been able to pinpoint the reason, but even since they finished they small amount of training she had that smile, like she had something new that she was proud of. Getsurei was leaning against the mast of the ship and looking up at the sky as always.

Inside the house, Hayate heard Arashi's proclamation and started to make his way for the door. But turning around he gave a small bow to Ekim and Shikyo. "We are in your debt Ekim-sama, without you our mission would have failed."

"No, you are on a mission to save my country from the tyranny that it has suffered under. I have you to thank." The monk then bowed low to the Jonin, and then with a swift yank he forced Shikyo to bow as well. "But you have hardships ahead of you. The Guard Ninja are not to be taken lightly, but I have faith in all of you."

"Except that Himura…" Shikyo said under his breath, but was swiftly hit over the head by his aged master.

"He'd kick you ass…" Turning back to Hayate he bowed once again. "May you have a safe journey."

With that Hayate made his way out to the ship, soon they were out and on their way to the Land of Lightning. They were now in open waters and the wind was in their sails, everyone however had their minds on what would happen when they made landfall. "We've got six days to get to the Capital, and four of those will be consumed by the trip over. Be prepared to engage enemy the moment we get away from the ship and into out of the open once we get there." Hayate took on a sterner look as he looked at the three kids put under his care. 'if there is any training you can do safely on the boat, please do, we have four days!" All of the others nodded brightly as they thought about what would happen soon.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Hey everyone, sorry about this being so late. But I have to put school over doing this, as much as I would prefer to do this over school, I can't. I'm going to be trying to get to this more sooner.**

**Well Sasame is finally a Konoha Shinobi, Sasuke is back in the hospital, and poor Lee has sustained some serious injuries from trying to make Sakura happy by getting Sasuke to return. Hinata and Arashi are getting closer by the day, and what is making Hinata more confident than normal? What is the history of the Raikou family? And more so, what are the pasts of Akuhei and Getsurei?**

**Now you all should review! I really don't want to start the limiter again. By if you guys don't review I'm going to go Hermit Mode on your ass!!**

**Jutsu List:**

Konoha Senpuu – Leaf Hurricane

Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu – Katon: Great Fireball Jutsu

Chidori – Come on, you know that!

**It's you're lucky day, it's time for the second TAC Omake!!**

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

(A few weeks previous)

Chouji was walking across town to make a surprise visit to the Yamanaka Flower Shop. He just couldn't wait to see the smile on his Ino's face when he walked in the door. Also it just so happened that this was also the route he took every day to go training with his Team, being the observant person he was he had noticed the other people along his route that went on certain schedules to do certain things every day. One of these was a rather weird one, every day Chouji would pass Neji as he entered a certain Dango shop. At first he had found it odd, he never took Neji for one who liked sweets all that much.

But this day it was a bit earlier, and the thing he almost instantly picked up on was another member of Neji's team, TenTen. "Ohayo Chouji!" She called out as they came into view.

"Oh, hey TenTen. What brings you over here? Is your training grounds nearby?" The Akimichi asked.

"Not at all." She said lightly, then pointed to the small wooden towel holder. "My favorite onsen is right over there on the other side of that Dango Shop." Chouji's eyes opened wider at hearing that. "Well, it was nice seeing you, say hi to Ino for me!" She said before going into the onsen.

A devilish smile crossed Chouji's lips as he went into the Dango shop and sat down on the far side of it. In about ten minutes, the same time he would have been coming this way anyway, sure enough Neji comes along and sits down facing the wall. After ordering some tea and once thing of Dango, he pulled out a scroll from his hip-pouch and held in before his face and started reading.

Getting up and moving slowly, Chouji paid and then made his way out of the shop, passing right by Neji. Stopping he leaned over to check his thoughts, and sure enough he could see the bulging veins of an active Byakugan, a small trickle of blood from the Hyuuga's nose, and a quiet perverted giggle.

Deciding not to bust the Hyuuga, he continued on his normal route to pick up Ino for training. 'Oh what I would give to have those eyes when Ino went to the Onsen!'

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	33. The Fight for Lightning Begins

**Review Reply:**

Sorry but it's been too long for me to go back and reply to them…sorry. I'm really hating myself for just how long it's been since I updated. I hope this satisfies everyone!

I would also like to say just how awesome it is to me that with this chapter I break the 300,000 word mark!!

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto, only Arashi or any other OCs I create!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was late, very late, but Getsurei just couldn't fall asleep. He had been below the deck of the small boat that he was now riding in. He had done his best to put up with his bodyguards the previous three days, but there was only so much he could endure of Naruto's whining. But at least he had gotten a cheap laugh at the boy when he heard that he had no clue what he was doing on a sailboat due to the fact he had slept through the lessons that had been taught on the subject at their Shinobi Academy. But lately he had been spending the time below deck, thinking things over. It had started about six hours or so ago, but his mind couldn't get off of the fact that they would be landing midway through the next day. Two things were gnawing away at his mind and he just couldn't shake the thoughts. The first of course being that there was about a fifty-fifty chance in his mind that he was going to die, but the second being the other side of that grim possibility. That he would become the Daimyo for a whole country in two days, he felt like this huge weight of responsibilities was about to fall on his back and crush him under it.

But now he sat against the hull of the ship, his eyes unfocused and looking at a pile of ropes across fro him. Everyone else was asleep save for Hayate; Getsurei only knew this from the random coughs that could still be heard from above. He had found it odd at first that the Jonin didn't have the coughing problem as he slept but had quickly dismissed it at none of his business. Closing his eyes he leaned his head back and took in all his senses could tell him after he let out a long sigh. He cold hear the wind blowing gently outside, the sound of Naruto's light snores and movements as he rolled around in his sleep. He could smell the sea air and he could feel the difference in temperature from when they had left, he couldn't help but smile at the feeling of returning home.

"Home…" He then said under his breath as his eyes opened and looked at his clenched hands. "Akuhei…" He then said with clear spite in his voice. He could still remember the fun that they had together as little kids, but he also remembered how it started to turn sour. When he was finally of an age capable of getting into Shinobi training, he had refused. This of course had came as a huge surprise to his father; this also started the rift between father and son that eventually would lead to where it was. But despite Ieyasu's disapproval of forgoing training, he still needed to bring him up into the replacement that he would eventually be.

But with his decision to do his own studies instead of learning to be a ninja, he only opened the door for his brother to ascend higher than he thought he would. For Getsurei, he had taken a deep interest in astronomy and all of its mysteries, while Akuhei had found Ninjutsu. It wasn't long before Akuhei had absorbed everything that their father could teach him. It was also then that the smug and power hungry look appeared on his face, Akuhei quickly packed up and headed off to Kumo to continue his quest for power. Soon he became a valuable Chunin to the village, always taking the most prestigious and ruthless missions. Not long after that he became know as Akuhei no Hakaisha, Akuhei the Destroyer, notorious across the country for utterly eliminating any opposition.

But anytime that he would come back to the Capital, Getsurei would see an odd look in his brother's eyes. A sort of ominous glare towards his father and himself, it had always creeped him out and sent a shiver up his spine. Plus whenever he visited, he would spend most of his time speaking with the Guard Ninja. But thinking back on this, Getsurei's eyes suddenly went wide in sudden realization. 'He was always speaking with Father's central Shinobi…the ones he would use in missions!' Standing up quickly he quickly ran outside and to Hayate. "We have a problem!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN TEACHING HIM!?!?!" A voice screamed so loud that every single person within the hospital could hear it. But where it had originated from, Kurenai was now wincing in pain as she thought she would never hear again. Before her stood Maito Gai, looking very pissed and very dangerous.

"Gai, you can't possibly blame this one me! Sasuke has been a difficult one ever since he got on my team. I'm really sorry but there isn't anything you can do. Tsunade-sama has him locked away for a reason, the same reason you're not allowed near him!!" She yelled back at the fuming green clad man. Sasuke had been locked away in one of the secure medical rooms as soon as he had been brought there by Shizune and Genma four days ago.

Gai had just gotten back from a high level mission and had just heard the news about what had happened to his cute little student during his absence. Upon arriving at the hospital, Tsunade had performed emergency surgery on Lee, hoping to maybe save his Shinobi career. It had been close, but after a stressful five hour operation, she had managed to reattach all of the torn muscles, ligaments, and tendons that had been severed at his hip. Afterwards she had said that if Lee hadn't been brought to her when he did, then his Ninja days would have been over. Lee's trials were far from over, with the amount of damage he had received, he would have to go through intensive rehabilitation. He was lucky he would be able to walk, there were few injuries of that nature that the Hokage had seen and she was surprised that it had been as bad as it was.

But immediately after she had gotten out of surgery, she had ordered that Sasuke be placed in a secure room. First off for his protection from the eventual wrath of Gai once he retuned, and secondly to keep him restrained. He was given a drug that disrupts his chakra and was strapped down so that he couldn't escape like he had the last time he was in the hospital. He was conscious but he had no chance to get away and only members of his team were permitted to visit him. The Hokage had also decided that any medical complications would be handled by herself or Shizune; she didn't want the incident to become widely public. After all she was a new Hokage and didn't exactly want one of her Shinobi to be seen as going rouge.

But at the moment no one was visiting Sasuke, Sakura had been there frequently, Shino had accompanied her twice, but Kiba had only come the first time. Their visits were quiet ones, only a few words exchanged, Tsunade had sat in on one of them and it was just depressing. It was so obvious that his team mates cared for him and were worried abut him, especially Sakura…who had seemed to be holding back tears the entire time Tsunade had seen her. But Sasuke was so single-minded that either he didn't notice or just didn't care. After the first day his initial frustration and anger at his predicament washed away and his mood changed slightly, a small look of regret could be seen on his face as he sat alone in his room to be left with his thoughts. But right now Tsunade was in the room with the Uchiha, after hearing the outburst from Gai she figured that if something did happen, she would be the one to stop Gai. She was also in there giving him another dose of the chakra depressant.

"Hokage-sama…" She heard come from Sasuke's downcast head. "Will Lee be okay?"

Hearing that, the Hokage's face turned into a slight smile. 'At least he shows some regret and concern.' "He'll eventually be fine, but not for quite a while. You really did a number on him." Walking over to the door so that she could leave she looked back to see Sasuke looking at his fists which where clenched tightly around some of the fabric that made his sheet.

Just as she opened the door, she heard him speak up once more. "Tell him I'm sorry."

She nodded to the boy, but just as she was about to close the door she figured she would do her part as his leader. "Give up on him…" Sasuke's eyes narrowed while his fists clenched harder at the meant meaning behind those words, but remained silent as the Hokage left the room to leave him with his thoughts.

Elsewhere in the building, Lee had two visitors of his own. "And then Hanabi-chan went off grumbling back inside the house!" TenTen said, finishing one of her many stories. Which of course sent Lee into a hard laugh; she always enjoyed telling them to him because he would burst into laughter at almost every one of them, unlike Neji, who the most she would get out of him was a smile. They had been there for a while, just trying to cheer Lee up.

Lee was trying to have a good time, but quickly his smile would fade into a blank look. The whole time Neji had been relatively quiet, preferring to let TenTen do the talking for the both of them. But seeing Lee act so much unlike himself bothered the Hyuuga for some reason. Straightening himself he cleared his throat as if to alert Lee that he was about to speak, also that he needed to do it quickly before who he knew was in the hospital burst through the door. "I'm glad you are getting better…Lee."

A genuine smile broke his face as he looked at Neji who now was almost fidgeting uncomfortably in his seat. He was about to speak up and thank his rival and friend when the door suddenly burst open and his sensei rushed in the room. "LEEEEEEE!!!!"

"GAI-SENSEI!!!" Lee screamed as once again they embraced in what they liked to refer to as the 'Hot-blooded hug of Youth'; meanwhile the other two just rolled their eyes and tried not to lose their lunch. But Neji couldn't help but let a small smile slip out, it appeared that everything was going to okay and was slowly returning to normal. At least for his team, he knew that Team 8 will be troubled for quite some time. Team 10 would most likely feel the strain with Asuma's apparent closeness to Kurenai in Neji's eyes. Also he was sure that once Team 7 returned they would get involved, there was no doubt in his mind that Naruto would be compelled to get involved; seeing as how Lee and Sasuke were two of his friends. But at least the Hyuuga knew that his Team would pull out of this, with Lee's iron determination there was no doubt in his mind that they wouldn't.

But elsewhere a very tired Hokage was rubbing her temples to attempt and stall the headache she felt coming. Tsunade was sitting at her desk, surrounded by forms and all sorts of Hokage related issues, still not wanting to do the needed work. Her little 'visit with Sasuke was still weighing heavily on her heart. While his display of remorse was a positive, his reaction to her suggestion about Itachi was far from what she wanted to get from him. Leaning back in her comfy chair she looked straight up as the ceiling and let a tiny smirk cross her face. "If you stay there watching me like that I might just have to charge you…" She said before straightening up and knitting her hands together under her chin. "Jiraiya."

Stepping out from behind one of the few places you could be concealed in the room; he walked over and leaned the wall near her with a large grin on his face. "And here I thought the show might get interesting…" He said with his distinct joking laugh, Tsunade probably shouldn't have laughed at the clearly perverted joke, but with all that was going on recently she needed a good laugh. Watching her laugh at his jokes brought a smile to his face and a raised eyebrow. "Things really had been going that badly around here?"

The Hokage then rubbed the bridge of her nose with one hand and squinted eyes. "The Uchiha got into a serious tussle with one of Gai's kids…took quite a while to get him patched up. Kurenai's Team seems to be falling apart and I'm still worried about what's going on with those two kids."

"That sounds worse than I thought!" The Sannin replied with a sarcastic laugh, but his face soon shifted into a serious one. "We really do need to keep and eye on Sasuke don't we?"

"Yeah, I tried to give him sufficient space so as not to alienate him from everyone by putting a bunch of rules over him. But that seemed to back fire…" She stated, her features suddenly going into a stern glare at the door to her office. "But we can't afford for Orochimaru to get his hands on him. It's obvious he's after the power of the Sharingan and with that Curse Seal on the boy, it looks like he's trying to bait him with power."

Jiraiya sighed heavily while moving over to put a hand down on a clear section of her desk while leaning in to speak closer with her. "That's enough about that; you know I don't enjoy talking about that Snake. But I did get finish the job you asked of me…"

"Really? That was fast."

"Well apparently many things have been going on up there so it wasn't that hard for my contacts to get information." This peaked Tsunade's attention, she leaned back in her chair so she was ready to hear what he had found. "As you suspected, there has been strife within the ruling family of the Land of Lightning. I found that the Daimyo has three of his personal Guard Shinobi actively after Getsurei." Reaching his hand into his tunic he then pulled out three pictures and placed them down before his old friend. "These are the three that will probably come in contact with the boys. The first one is Zankoji Toushura, I'm sure you remember Hayate's confrontation with him a while ago. The good news is that he's apparently already fought Naruto and Arashi's team. I heard that he slaughtered a whole room full of doctors after he was treated for wounds he suffered after losing a battle, apparently he was hit with something that left a huge spiral scar on his stomach."

"The Rasengan, that means Naruto…!" Tsunade exclaimed in relief.

"Yeah, but the next person is Kinme Kurohyou. Not much is know about her, she was a high ranking Chunin like Zankoji before she was recruited to serve as a Guard Shinobi. All I could find on her was that she uses Summons in battle…" He said, not sure if he should tell her about the personality issues he heard of, letting out a small perverted laugh to himself when he figured it wasn't important.

"Wait, you said Kurohyou? She's not…"

"I'm afraid she is part of _that_ clan, but I couldn't find anything on if she knows _their_ skills. Then the third guy, all I got was that picture, his name and rank. He's known as Oki, and is a high level Chunin as well."

Tsunade looked at the picture carefully, the man in the picture looked about 16 or so, had dark blond hair that was pulled into a thick braided pony tail, but with two long spikes that fell loosely on the sides of his face, framing it and stopping at about chin level. He had a calm and cold look to his face, very black eyes, and an odd red upside-down triangle tattoo on his left cheek. "I have a bad feeling about this one."

"Me too, all I could find is that he is always seen with a large box type thing on his back." Then the Toad Master sighed heavily, not sure if he should tell Tsunade this last bit of information pertaining to the Boy's mission. "There's one more thing…"

Tsunade already had a bad feeling about this, Jiraiya wasn't one to withhold information, or even hesitate in telling it. "And…"

"It seems that Ieyasu Raikou was assassinated about half a week ago…by his other son." He watched as Tsunade's eyes widened at the realization of what was going on. "This means he's the one who's really behind everything…and that it's now a four on four fight."

Tsunade slumped back in her chair and put her arm over her face. "Akuhei no Hakaisha…he might be too much for our boys to handle." She was suddenly met with a hard laugh from the man at her side.

"Our boys?! You make it sound like we're their parents!" He bellowed in laughter, but while he was doing this he missed the slight blush that crossed Tsunade's face at the thought of children with Jiraiya. Thankful for him missing the heat in her cheeks she waited for his laughter to stop, after all it wasn't that funny. "Besides, our kids would look a hell of a lot better that those brats!!" He then said, before bursting out into a hard laugh with Tsunade who then let out a very unlady-like snort. Jiraiya suddenly stopped and just gawked at her as she covered her mouth in embarrassment. "What was that!?!" After a moment of silence he thought it best to leave the moment in the past. "But anyway, they'll be fine…with a Jonin of Hayate's caliber nothing will happen. Plus, those two are strong…as well as little Hinata-chan."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow to this, she had never really thought of the Hyuuga as a contributor to the mission. Especially after the rambling she had heard about the girl from Arashi on their way back to Konoha as well as the way they were attached at the hip once they were back. "Well I don't exactly know the girl."

"I only trained her from a month, but she is in contract with the Eagles…" He said and watched Tsunade's jaw drop open. "She has enormous potential, on par with 'Our Boys' as you put it. I still think the Old Man was crazy for creating a monster of ateam like their's…" He said with a reminiscing grin before looking at Tsunade with a sly grin. "I was going to recommend you to take her on as an apprentice, a life time of Hyuuga caliber chakra control training, the Byakugan. I know how badly you've wanted to get your hands on a Hyuuga to be a medical ninja…"

Tsunade was just sitting there with a grin on her face that soon turned serious. "Does she have the determination?"

The man next to her just let out a small laugh. "With those two on her team how couldn't she, from what I heard from the idiots she pushes herself harder than they do so as not to fall behind."

"I'll think about it…but I'll have to meet her." She replied with a big grin.

"That's good to hear…but…" He said, getting the Hokage's full attention once more and pulling her thoughts away from making the greatest medic the world has ever seen. "This doesn't pertain to their mission but it's important. I've been getting reports through the grapevine that several villages near where Oto could be are being completely wiped out. Like some people are using them from practice, or preparation. In one place my contact said that half the people had no injuries, but it seemed they had all had died from chakra depletion…like it was sucked out of them. While the others were all impaled with a very strange projectile of spiky golden metal, I have a really bad feeling about this…I think Orochimaru is on the move again."

Tsunade's brow furrowed at that thought. "He's at least preparing fro something…I'd rather have you here in the village on the off chance something happens. But you've got more investigations to do don't you?"

"As much as I'd enjoy staying here, I've gotten a couple leads on the Akatsuki I need to follow up on. Perhaps find some things out that we can use…but I did hear a rumor that two of their members were on a hunt for Orochimaru, so he might be preparing to fight them off…but that might just be hopeful thinking."

"So how long are you going to be gone this time?" She asked in an oddly saddened voice from Jiraiya's perspective.

"It depends on what I find out." He said with a wink and a laugh. "Don't forget what I said about Hinata though, she is going to come in handy." With that he was gone with a grin and a puff of smoke, leaving Tsunade in her office with several new things to worry about.

"That idiot always leaves without actually saying goodbye…" She muttered to herself as she put her head down on her desk in frustration.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The day had finally come; everyone was awake and preparing for the coming day. The day had started off strangely, this was due to Hayate waking everyone up and explaining that there was a high possibility that there were four of their enemies instead of the three they had heard about. But after that the group had gone off to prepare, it was after this that Arashi found himself leaning against the railing of the boat they presently occupied and simply gazing off at the rising Sun, his mind whirling around him. "It's tough, isn't it?" He suddenly heard next to him.

"W-What?" He said as he turned to see Hayate, calmly facing the other direction with is eyes closed.

"The wait, it's tough. The calm before an expected battle, the thoughts of death in action…this is your first time with this isn't it?" He said, in a thoughtful tone that Arashi had not heard the coughing man use before.

"Yeah, every other time we've been thrust into battle. I've never had to sit and wait for a fight I know is going to happen." He replied softly, but this was soon replaced by a serious glare from the Himura that faced out into the rising Sun. "But regardless, I'm not going to let anything happen. This is my mission, and I'm not going to let it go badly!"

All he got back was a light laugh from the Jonin to his side. "Of course, that's what I'm here for…but there is something important I need to tell you before we make landfall." This got the boy's attention, turning around they both were looking at each other. "As you know, there is a high probability that there are four enemies now. With this in mind, we will most likely end in one on one battles. Now this is important, depending on if we make group contact or not, it will determine what happens. But the most probable is that it will be a singular encounter for each enemy. If that happens I will handle the first one that appears…the odds are that it will be Zankoji."

"But that guy seemed really unstable; don't you think he'd have a grudge against me and Naruto? Wouldn't he just attack us straight up?"

"I told you about my own history with that guy, besides; he is probably the weakest one of them. With me being the strongest out of us, I can dispatch him quickly and catch up to aid the rest of us. But now this is the important part…after you defeated Zankoji, he was rescued by a woman that called herself Kinme. If she appears, you are to confront her, don't let anyone else fight her!" Hayate said with a serious look on his face before he suddenly broke out in hard coughs.

"But why me?" Arashi asked, wondering what condition made it his responsibility to handle her. Not that he had qualms about fighting a woman, but because he had hoped to go against their leader.

"When she picked up Zankoji, she was using two person sized Panther Summons. From reading over your fight in the Chunin Finals, you are the only one who would be able to counter her use of Summons with your own." He sad before letting out a small cough. Looking back at Arashi, he could see a smile stretch across his face. But quickly it was replaced with a worried look.

"What about Hina-chan? We don't know if that Kinme person is the strongest or just the person above Zankoji! What if…!" He blurted out.

"She can handle herself perfectly fine. Or did you forget the bruises you had after you trained with her?" Hayate said calmly to the boy. 'He sure can be protective…'

"Oi! We're almost at a landing spot!" They then heard shout over from the other back of the vessel. "Let's get ready!" Naruto shouted out with his ear to ear grin.

"I think they were in the middle of something, baka." Getsurei said behind the orange clad Shinobi.

"Teme! Just you wait, after we get you to the Capital and our mission is over…I'm sooo kicking your ass!"

"How can you be this hyper this early in the morning?" He asked as he yawned and began to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

Arashi couldn't help but let out a small laugh at the sight of Naruto's bickering. His smile then began to fade as his gaze drifted over to Hinata. She was currently steering the boat, and he just wanted to go over and hold her tight. 'I hope nothing happens…' His couldn't put his finger on it, but he had a really bad feeling about this day. But he just shook it off as they all prepared to make landfall and then quickly make their way towards the Capital.

But unknown to the group, a person cloaked in a long grey cloak was watching them from a hidden position on the cliff that overlooked the small bay that his prey had found. Reaching his hand up and into his hood, his pressed down on the wireless communicator that was strapped around his neck. "Target has made contact at point C; meet at point E to begin attack."

He heard responses from the other two of his comrades, but then the voice of his leader began to speak into his ear. "Good job Oki, when we get to point E you know the plan."

"Hai…I'm fully prepared and ready for full combat." Oki responded with a grin before he vanished from his hiding spot, heading for the rendezvous point.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Anyone of these people could be out to get us…" Naruto whispered to Arashi as they moved in a protective formation around Getsurei. It had been about an hour into their walk when Hayate finally lead them out of the dense woods they had been in and onto a walk able road.

"I know, by the chances of them attacking are lower in a traveled area like this that it would be if we just went through the woods." He said back quietly, while still keeping formation held. They had decided on Naruto and Arashi waking ahead of the others. This might have been a problem with their rather obvious allegiance to Konoha, but Naruto had suggested the use of Henge in order to avoid suspicion and immediate identification. He and Naruto looked as if they were just two middle aged rice farmers traveling together, while Hinata was off to Getsurei's right under a Henge that made her appear to just be a woman traveling alone. While Hayate was disguised as a traveling companion for Getsurei and was walking right beside him on the left side.

The formation had him completely protected while still hiding them, after all Hayate in his obvious Konoha Jonin outfit would have given everything away, as well as the Konoha headbands that they all wore. So far everything was going exactly as they wanted and from their position a little bit ahead of everyone else, Arashi and Naruto could scan the other people on the road to see if any could possibly be the ones after them.

"It's about time to cut off the main path." Naruto said under his breath to Arashi, who responded with a nod to signal him to start the distraction. Reaching into his back pocket he pulled out something and held it tightly in his hand. "Oh crap! My shoe!" He said out loud, to distract the purpose of him bending down to the ground. Kneeling down Naruto fiddled with his shoe for a second while he secretly placed the dark purple ball under some dirt. "Well that settles that…" He sighed as he stood back up and continued walking.

Behind him, the others heard the signal phrase and had made their way past the spot Naruto had knelt down. Once they were far enough away, the smoke bomb that Naruto had planted erupted in a purple cloud that covered the entire road and everyone on it. "Let's go!" Arashi said as their group swiftly turned and dashed into the tree line.

"I'm sorry Getsurei, but we need to move fast." Hayate commented to Getsurei before picking him up and tossing him up on his shoulder.

The man was going to complain, but figured that this was in fact the best course of action. With a sigh he frowned as the Shinobi leapt up to branches in the trees capable of holding them. They continued like this for about ten minutes, covering a good distance. Once Arashi felt like they had made their way far enough away from the road to relax a bit, he raised his hand and the pointed down to the ground. With a nod, everyone dropped back down to the ground. "Glad that's over…" Getsurei remarked as he moved his now stiff arm around to loosen it up.

"Hopefully, we weren't spotted…that was a great plan for getting away unnoticed Naruto." Arashi said as they began to walk like they had earlier.

Raising his arms up behind his head with his signature goofy grin, Naruto laughed slightly as he walked beside his friends. "Oh yeah, I just thought that the best was to get away was with a distraction. Normally smoke bombs are used to hide your attack, not to get away. So if any ninjas were around they would be expecting an attack and wouldn't pursue anyone!"

'A little over the top, but I guess that's just Naruto's style, plus is was a decent plan…' Hayate thought while looking at the smiling boy. Hinata just giggled slightly at the ego boost Naruto had gotten form the small compliment, she was just glad that they were moving along smoothly, her Byakugan sweep earlier had revealed that no one was following them.

Now that they had gotten off of the main road and were on a direct course towards the Capital, it should have been less stressful than before. But for some reason Arashi was getting a very bad feeling with almost every step. With a glare on his face he scanned the surroundings as they walked at the brisk pace that Getsurei agreed to go at. Nothing look suspicious to him, no broken twigs to indicate movement through the area, no footprints, nothing about the canopy of the trees seemed disturbed. 'Maybe I'm just overacting…' He thought, but then his mind suddenly went back to one of the first lessons that Iruka had taught the class in the Academy. "_Listening to you intuition can save a Shinobi's life, if a situation feels fishy…it most likely is."_

"You doing okay?" Arashi heard to his left, it was Naruto. "You were zoning out there for a moment."

Disregarding the statement from his friend, Arashi's eyes narrowed as the uneasy feeling he was getting continued to increase. "Hina-chan…" He said almost under his breath, almost like he was trying to hide the fact he was talking to her. "Can you scan ahead of us to see if there are enemies ahead of us?"

"Un!" She said with a nod of her head as she closed her eyes and held a single hand sigh up before her. "Byaku…!"

She was just about to activate her Kekkei Genkai when suddenly four blurs of metal were seen shooting down at the four Shinobi below from above in the trees. "Kuso!" Arashi yelled as his mind instantly identified the blurs as four of Zankoji's chains, with a quick movement he grabbed Hinata and pulled her out of the path of the chain headed for her. With her eyes closed due to the start of activating the Byakugan, she was helpless to the incoming attacks.

Skidding across the ground with her in his arms he rolled back onto his feet with a glare that was directed at the point in the trees where the chains lead from. Each of the metal chains had what looked like a large and long spike at the end of it and each one of the four had missed their targets and impaled deep into the ground. "Fufufufufu…you brats are still sharp…" The deep and raspy voice that could only belong to the man the boys had defeated, could be heard speaking.

With the sound of metal scraping against metal, Zankoji dropped from the canopy of the trees, landing with an explosion of dust as he hit the ground. "T-They're here…" Getsurei said under his breath as he hid behind Hayate.

"Arashi…you know the plan." The Jonin said calmly as his glare locked with the demented look of expected bliss that was painted on the face of his enemy. "Getsurei-sama, go with the kids, they will protect you with their lives…"

Nervously, Getsurei ran as fast as he could until he was now standing behind Naruto. But the eyes of Hayate and Zankoji never broke contact. They knew what was going to happen and they wanted it to happen. The score would be settled, blood would be spilt, and satisfaction of victory was the prize they would soon fight over. "Let's go!" Naruto said as the three Shinobi moved to leave with their client.

It was then that Zankoji's gaze snapped off of Hayate and centered on the running kids, a ferocious and blood-lust filled look on his face. "Like I'd just let you just leave!!!" He howled as with a thrust of his arm one of his spike tipped chains shot off, aimed to pierce straight through Naruto's back.

The only thing that could bee heard next was the loud clash of metal on metal followed by the sound of a mass of chains falling limply to the ground, and then finally the distinct sound of a Katana being returned to its Saya. "Like I'd let you stop them…" The sickly looking man said in a dangerous tone as his glare deepened at the person in front of him.

In return Zankoji's stance seemed to deepen, bending his knees more, and getting in a stance he loved all too well. He gazed at his opponent for a moment before his memory kicked in. "Ah, you're the brat who showed up at our training camp all those year ago!" Reaching up he traced the outline of the scar that ran down the right side of his face. "I thought this thing was acting up recently…" He said jokingly before breaking out into a blood-lust filled grin. "How about I return the favor!?"

Hayate had to move fast, with a twitch of his finger Zankoji had sent one of the remaining spiked chains flying at him. It was a simple move to predict and an even simpler one for the Jonin to evade. A quick Shunshin and Hayate had Mizuki drawn and ready from blood, a sharp movement later and the sword found itself buried through Zankoji's back and sticking out his chest. "It's over…" Hayate grinned as he ripped his sword out from the man's chest, only to see a spray of leaves where blood should be. "Kawarimi?"

"Yaaaahaaa!! Hayate then heard being shouted over his head, looking up her saw Zankoji plummeting down towards him, grabbing the end of his chain and using it like a short spear.

Making a quick back flip, the Konoha Jonin barely missed being impaled on the metal spike. Coming to a skidding halt he raised his trusty sword up and prepared to charge back at the man to finish him off. But this plan was immediately destroyed when he saw his enemy smirking while the spike was still embedded deep within the ground. "Dageki!" Zankoji screamed as the bright surge of electricity streamed out of the chain and into the ground, Hayate' eyes shot wide as he saw the burst begin to spread out along the ground, getting closer to him by the millisecond.

"Kuso!" He swore as he jumped back just in time to miss the electric attack that would have left him stunned and smoking. Flipping backwards in midair he managed to land on a tree trunk, immediately after coming into contact with it he shoved off of it, sending him flying back towards Zankoji, with Mizuki pulled back and ready to cleave some limbs. Setting his foot back on the ground after rebounding off the tree he made a dash towards Zankoji, who by now had pulled his chain out of the ground and was waiting for his attack. "Mikazuki no Mai!" Hayate shouted as two other versions of himself appeared next to him as he sped towards his target.

Weaving in and out of each other, Hayate and the two Kage Bunshin leapt into the air as they approached Zankoji, each holding their weapons high and ready to strike. "This is GREAT!!" Zankoji howled as he thrust his arms skyward making two chains impale the two versions of Hayate, each resulting in an explosion of smoke. He had eliminated the Kage Bunshin, but the real Hayate was still coming down. "Gaaah!" Zankoji yelled as the sharp sword fell hard on his cloak covered shoulder.

Jumping back after the attack for fear of a counter attack, Hayate was confused as to why Mizuki had not sliced through his body like a hot knife through butter. His confusion was sated for a moment when Zankoji began to laugh, a deep laugh that seemed almost demented. "This is great…" He muttered to himself in a low voice as his whole body seemed to tremble in anticipation of the battle. "You're a lot stronger than those brats were…" Suddenly his head popped up with a sadistic smile plastered on his bliss ridden face. "THIS IS THE BEST!!"

Then with the sudden sound of tearing cloth, the cloak that had been on the man shredded off as more chains sprouted from the summoning tattoos on his body. Now with the cloak gone Hayate saw exactly why he hadn't at least severed an arm with his last attack…the man had many chains already wrapped around his body to make a sort of chain armor. Looping around his torso they covered his chest, up and over his shoulders. Hayate's gaze shifted into a deep scowl as the mass of metal began to move as his enemy flicked his fingers around. The armor of chains slowly moved off of Zankoji and into an offensive position until there were only three chains still clinging to his torso. Two of them crossed over each other in a 'X' fashion to cover his chest and shoulders while the third was wrapped around his previously injured stomach. The rest of the chains all loomed over head, ready to pounce and impale their targets, or wrap around Hayate only to rip him to pieces once fully caught.

The Jonin was going over it in his head, there were six chains being used offensively due to the one he had severed. If he could just get rid of the three being used as defense he could end this and follow the rest of the group so he could help out. But he had to do it in a way that he could conserve chakra, not with what else was going on he needed to be at his best in order to do all he could and ensure his promise to the Hokage that nothing bad would happen to them.

As a Jonin he knew what he needed to do, but that also meant that as a Chunin of Zankoji's caliber, that he knew as well…Hayate needed to go long distance. While it wasn't exactly his style, it was a necessity against some opponents…and Zankoji was one of them. If he made a mistake up close to those chains it was all over, their eyes were locked as each knew what was going to come next.

With a flick of his wrist, a chain swept wide in an attempt to knock Hayate of balance. Seeing it coming, the Jonin jumped over it while he flung three kunai straight at the exposed points on his enemy's body. This was met by Zankoji purposefully moving so that the small knives merely bounced off of the chains he had wrapped around his torso.

These small exchanges of combat were getting Hayate nowhere, everything he did was either not enough, blocked, or was countered. 'When had Kumo's Chunin been this good?' He thought to himself, he now needed to do something to firstly find a weak point in his defense and secondly to end this quickly. Quickly flashing through several hand signs he inhaled deeply as he leaned back, with his lungs full and his chakra ready, he blasted out a blaze of fire sent directly at his enemy. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!!"

But to Hayate's surprise, the chains at had been hovering in the air menacingly all seed to spiral around Zankoji, finally resting in a tightly wrapped dome of chains. The Jonin's eyes glared as he saw the flames merely wash over the protective dome, the way it had protected him was almost working like the way that Suna boy with the gourd had used sand in the Chunin Exams. Hayate was brought quickly out of his thoughts as he saw a small gap open up in the chains, only to see a spiked chain come rocketing out at him.

Quickly side stepping he dodged the chain he rushed to the other side of the chain dome, only for another chain to shoot out at him the second he stopped to think. Jumping out of the way he leapt backward and landed on a high tree branch that overlooked the area they were fighting in. 'I see, he switched the function of his chains. The ones that were offensive re now defensive and the defensive ones are being used for offence. He's better than I thought he would be.' As he watched another hole opened up, sending yet another blast of spied metal his way, Hayate realized he would have to end this soon before he made a mistake or the kids made one.

Landing a good distance away from the shining dome of metal he reached up and pulled Mizuki out from off his back; gripping it with his right hand he held her straight above his head as he began to focus his chakra to the sword's blade, his eyes closed in concentration. "It can't be helped…" Meanwhile Zankoji's eyes were wide in curiosity as to why Hayate was simply standing there like a sitting duck; this was until he saw a faint blue glow begin to form along his blade.

"That can't be good…" He muttered to himself when he saw Hayate's eyes snap open and focus directly on his protective dome.

"Getsuga Tensho!!!" He screamed as he swung his sword down, a blue arc of compressed chakra blasting off the blade aimed right at Zankoji. The blue crescent of destruction shot forward and the second it smashed into the chain dome, much to Zankoji's surprise the metal barrier shattered.

The next thing he knew, Zankoji could feel the cold steel of Hayate's blade pressed against the side of his neck. It had been almost instantly after the blast that Hayate had appeared crouched low in front of him with a smirk on his face. "It's over…" Hayate almost hissed, his voice cold and menacing.

"Oh?" Was all Zankoji could say, before with a swift movement Mizuki swept through the man's neck…severing the grinning head from its body.

Hayate almost had a second to grin in victory, but the feeing was immediately ruined when he saw the decapitated head morph into a splatter of mud as it hit the ground, followed by the rest of his body. "Tsuki Bunshin?! Oh Shi…" He began to say, his eyes wide at the mistake he had made.

Suddenly the ground beneath him exploded as a chain shot out of it and ripped through the side of Hayate's left arm, blood spraying onto the ground. Reacting quickly to the surprise attack, Hayate jumped back to a safe distance while gripping his arm in pain. "This is the quality of Konoha's Jonin? And Akuhei-sama said to be careful! What a fool!!" Zankoji yelled in satisfaction, the thrill of the battle was growing by the second, he was panting hard while a huge grin was pasted on his face. He had never had such an exhilarating battle, most of his opponents were quickly captured by his chains and ripped to shreds, and never had so many of his chains been rendered useless before. All he had left was the three of them that had originally protected him, the rest being shattered in the devastating attack launched by his enemy. He had small cuts all over his arms from the shrapnel of his destroyed chains that he had suffered before he retreated into the ground.

Glaring at the man, Hayate was running through the options he had. There was one move he didn't want to do…but the way things were going he would be forced to use it before something else happened to him. Closing his eyes with a sigh he stood up straight before slowly opening his eyes and staring directly at his enemy…his decision made. "This time…it's really over."

The grin on his face seemed to only grow wider at the prospect that his enemy was going to try and end this now. "So what's it going to be? Some other Moon related jutsu?" He chided at Hayate in a mocking tone. "But I did like that last one…what was it? Ah, that's right…Getsuga Tensho. What a lofty name for something so destructive!!" He laughed; mocking Hayate, trying to provoke him into going all out on him, even a baby could tell the Jonin was holding back in an attempt to conserve chakra and power for later. "I'll have to figure out how to do that move myself…after I tear your body to shreds that is!" He could see Hayate's glare deepened at every verbal poke he gave the man. "You might as well give it your all…" He said before a sly sneer formed on his face and he began to laugh. "Because there is no way that you'll survive this fight!"

Suddenly in the blink of an eye Hayate whipped his arm around and flung a kunai straight at Zankoji. Seeing the blade coming at him at an incredible speed he jumped up with all of his power in order to escape in time. Only barely missing the shot he found himself high in the air, but upon starting a decent back to the earth his eyes went wide when he saw the exploding tag starting to burn on the kunai. "Shit!" He managed to say to himself before the note went off, knocking him even higher into the air.

'Now I have the time!' Hayate thought as he pulled Mizuki out once again, then in a fluid motion he flung her spinning high into the air. The instant the sword left his hands he began to flash through a series of hand signs, finishing the sequence he snapped his eyes open. In precise timing he whipped his right hand out and caught Mizuki with the blade pointing vertically at the ground, his other hand holding a hand sign. "Dive…Mizuki…" He said softly as he slowly let go of the sword, almost in slow motion the blade descended to the ground and seemingly sunk into it as if it was water.

'What did he do? He just lost his weapon!?' Zankoji thought as he finally landed in a pained crouch, the explosion had injured his legs a bit, pain radiating through them as he stood up to face his fully concentrated enemy. "What do you expect to do now without your precious sword!?"

"Doton…" Hayate said almost under his breath, his gaze focused and hard on Zankoji. All of a sudden the ground beneath Zankoji began to shake violently; whipping his head from side to side he quickly looked for the cause of the shaking and any incoming attacks.

Suddenly two long sword blades shot upwards from under Zankoji, skewering him through each shoulder. "GAAAHHH!!!" The man screamed in pain as the swords shot all the way through his flesh. "YOU FUCKER!!" Then without warning another much larger and wider blade stabbed straight through Zankoji's stomach, angled up so that is came out halfway up his back.

"…Resshin no Yaiba!" Hayate said in a cold voice, finishing the name of his most deadly jutsu. Just looking at his enemy a grin of victory crossed his face; Zankoji was bleeding heavily from the three large sword blades that were impaled through him. The blood pouring from his abdomen was now pooling around his feet, coughing hard the chain user just hacked up a mouthful of blood. "No matter where you are, as long as you are toughing the ground, my blades will find you…" Hayate said with a cold look in his eye as he walked slowly in front of the bloody man.

"But…" He said only to cough up more blood and groan in horrible pain. "How…how could you do that?"

"Once Mizuki is in the ground I can freely form and move around the metal in the ground to my liking, making what I want where I want…like this." With a raise of his arm, a sparkling blade slowly rose from the ground, coming to a stop a few inches from Zankoji's neck. "But there is no point in continuing this…from where you were pierced here…" He said, applying pressure to Zankoji's bleeding torso, causing him to groan in more pain. "You've been paralyzed from the waist down; you're no threat to me…so I'll give you a choice." He said with a smirk on his face. "Live…or die…your choice."

With a heavy glare Zankoji then spat blood straight at Hayate's face. "Fuck you, I'm dead anyway if I'm found failing a second time! With Akuhei-sama as Daimyo I'll have nowhere to go, he'll hunt me down!"

Slowly reaching up he whipped the blood from off his face, then extended his hand out to his side. Then almost as slowly as it had descended into the ground, Mizuki rose into his hand. "So be it…" All that could be heard next was the sound of a sword moving swiftly through flesh, followed by the sound of a head falling to the ground. There was no chance of it turning out to be a Tsuki Bunshin this time. A flick of his wrist later and the razor sharp sword was returned to its place on his back, turning away from the corpse Hayate began to make his way in the direction the rest of the team had went in.

'I used up too much chakra with that last one…' He thought while the pain in his arm washed over him again as he jumped into the limbs of the trees. 'Plus I got injured; he was sneakier than I thought.' Moving slowly through the trees, Hayate's brow furrowed in displeasure on one of the things Zankoji had said. 'He said Akuhei was Daimyo…if he was telling the truth, then that means Ieyasu was killed…I've got a bad feeling about this.'

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Everyone stop!" Arashi yelled as the bad feeling he was having in his gut tripled suddenly.

Immediately everyone with him came to a stop beside him, wondering why he had ordered a halt of their traveling. "Why'd we stop? I don't see anyone!" Naruto said, he had been wondering what was taking Hayate so long in getting back.

"I have a really bad feeling about this place." Arashi replied with a glare at the clearing ahead of them. "Hina-chan…"

"Hai." She responded as she activated her Kekkei Genkai, peering out and into the clearing ahead. "There is a woman standing on the opposite side of the clearing in the shadows. It's almost like she's waiting for something…"

Getsurei then stepped up to the girl with a worried look on his face. "Is…is she wearing shoes?" He asked in a frantic voice. A second later Hinata simple shook her head in a definite 'no'. "How could they know we'd come this way?"

"Why does it matter if she is wearing shoes?" Naruto questioned, not seeing how it would have anything to do with anything.

"It's because only one woman I know doesn't wear shoes…Kinme Kurohyou…another one of the Guard Ninja!"

"Everyone, I don't think she's seen us…make your way around the way and continue on." Arashi said as he looked out into the clearing with a smile on his face. "Leave her to me…"

"A-Arashi-kun…" Hinata whimpered, her voice laced with concern, a moment later after fully taking in the smile on her love's face, her's distinctly became one of understanding. Taking a step towards him she blushed lightly as she gave him a small kiss on the cheek followed by a sweet smile. "We'll be waiting f-for you…I believe in you."

"Kick her ass…but why are you smiling about it?" Naruto said as they were about to make their way around the soon to be battlefield.

Arashi's smile just got bigger at that. "That…is because it's been far too long since I've fought with Ragna…" His smile was then transferred to Naruto as with a nod he and the rest of the team moved out, leaving Arashi standing in the shadows about to step into the clearing. "This should be fun…" The Himura said with a wide smile as he walked into the light.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**There we go! Finally I've finished this chapter. I am soooo sorry this took so freaking long. I got distracted by school and life when I was about half way through the chapter I got hit with a huuuuge case of Writers Block no Jutsu. Well I hope this at least make up for it with Hayate's fight.**

**And I know everyone is going to be excited about Arashi fighting next chapter!**

**So please forgive me for my absence, I sort of really got into the Avatar fandom and have been writing a story for that, check it out if you want.**

**Jutsu List:**

Kawarimi no Jutsu - Replacement Jutsu

Dageki - Shock

Mikazuki no Mai - Dance of the Crescent Moon

Getsuga Tensho - Moon-Fang Piercer of the Heavens

Doton: Resshin no Yaiba – Earth Release: Sword of the Disastrous Earthquake


	34. Of Cats and Dogs

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto, only Arashi and any other OCs I make

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto, only Arashi and any other OCs I make!

A/N: Okay I just want to thank everyone who has read this, and thank my reviewers with gusto. While I would love to get so many reviews that it would overflow out of my inbox, I have a feeling that it is just not going to happen. Just a little tidbit of info for those who care, but as of the last chapter The Arashi Chronicles is 603 pages on Microsoft Word! That is so awesomely long! As well as breaking 300,000 words last chapter I'm very pleased as where I've gone with this story. I'm gad that at least some people like it, but with its massive size I think that it's a little intimidating to just start reading, I know I wouldn't do it unless I had like a week of free time!!

Enough of my rambling, I'll be surprised if anyone actually read all of that, so on with the chapter!!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"You know Shino, I've been thinking lately…" Kiba said with purpose in his voice, but it was short lived as the bug user promptly interrupted him.

"I see…that is normally a dangerous thing." Shino remarked in his normal distant voice.

"Come on! I'm being serious here! You're worse than Nee-chan!" Kiba yelled back at his friend, every time the Inuzuka would get any semblance of seriousness, Shino would make some off handed comment that would destroy all credibility of what he was about to say. But the thing that pissed Kiba off the most was that Shino didn't even seem to find doing it fun, he just acted the same boring way he always did, the least he could do was laugh a little. Thinking back on it Kiba wasn't sure he had ever even heard the Aburame laugh…could they laugh? Shaking his head from getting off task he sighed deeply. "Really why do you even do that, I'm trying to talk with you and you gotta poke fun at me like that! Really what's up with it?"

Shino simply kept walking beside his friend; he had agreed to accompany Kiba on one of his walks with Akamaru. Reaching up he pushed his glassed up to their normal position and began to talk the way he always did. "I do it because normally Sakura finds it funny for some reason and laughs a bit."

"Huh?" Was all Kiba could say, he was dumbfounded at his reasoning.

"Sakura is under a lot of stress recently, with everything going on with our team…especially with Sasuke." Kiba's face suddenly shifted to one of sympathy, knowing all too well the separation Sasuke was making between himself and their team. "This added on to the fact she has for a long time thought of herself as a useless member of our team."

"That's crazy! She's not useless at all; she's a valuable member of Team 8!" The dog boy stated immediately.

"Of course she is; that is why I try to at least make things enjoyable for her. To take her mind off of everything that is really going on around here…it is what is called being a friend."

"Shino…" Kiba said almost under his breath, he had never thought that beneath the cold exterior of the bug user there was a very considerate and caring person. This was until he remembered something. "Hey! But she isn't even here!! There's no reason to do that NOW!!" He roared.

In response Shino simply readjusted his glasses again. "One must never pass up an opportunity to practice…besides you set yourself up too easily." He stated, Kiba just rolled his eyes at what he considered to be the closest thing to a joke that Shino ever said. "I'll humor you and see what it is you have been thinking about."

"Well…" Kiba said, the tone in his voice one of pride, almost like he thought he had figured out something. "I've been thinking a lot about Arashi…"

Shino then abruptly interrupted him. "Is this leading to yet another one of your plans to separate him and Hinata? Or have you decided to go after Arashi himself?"

"Shino!!" The Inuzuka yelled. "Nothing like that, I've just been thinking really hard on just who he really is. There has to be something to explain why Hinata likes him so much, why Sasuke regards him highly…" He began, but the last bit threw him into yet another tangent. "Did you know that Sasuke only considers three people his friends? Specifically that I'm not one of them!" Kiba said, anticipating Shino trying to point of the obvious. "So I think that he meant Sakura, Naruto, and Arashi. Sakura I get, Naruto I can get as well…with their rivalry that they've had and stuff…but there is nothing that would constitute Arashi being his friend! It's like he doesn't even like Sasuke, yet recently it's been different…I don't know it's all weird."

"Sasuke is a complicated person…did you perhaps think he considered me the third one and not Arashi…" Shino stated again in his normal voice.

"Ha! He respects you, but…well you know him. Anyway back to what I was saying, I've been thinking on just who Arashi really is…"

"That is simple; he is the last remaining member of the Himura clan, son of the Head of the Clan, holder of the Wolf Summon, a good Shinobi, and a person that is in the good grace of the Hokage."

"I know that already!!" Kiba yelled as a way of getting Shino to shut up. "I mean just _who_ he is…we don't know much of what he can do. But I have a theory!" Shino just rolled his eyes, even though his glasses blocked the view of them he just had to roll them. He began to wonder just how many of Kiba's crazy 'theories' he had to hear. At first they had been rather amusing, like when he 'thought' on just why Ichiraku's was the best Ramen place in town. But soon they blew up into full out conspiracy theories, the craziest being that Sandaime was still alive and had staged an invasion so he could retire in peace. But they mostly did bring a smirk to Shino's face when he heard the crazy that spewed out of Kiba's mouth.

"Well…"

Leaning in close, Kiba whispered in Shino's ear. "I don't think that the story of Yondaime killing the Kyuubi is true…" Shino's interest was peaked; Kiba was trying to pick apart the greatest and most well known story in the history of Konoha. "I think that instead of killing it, Yondaime-sama somehow managed to seal it away!"

"And you think he sealed in inside Arashi…don't you?"

"Of course! Just look at it! Arashi was born the day of the Kyuubi attack, he is incredibly powerful, AND he is NAMED after Yondaime-sama!!" Kiba shouted, his tone indicative of a very incompetent person who believed themselves to be right.

Shino just adjusted his glassed. "Have you forgotten your Hokage History? Arashi's mother was on Yondaime-sama's team, so she named him after a friend…and many people are powerful. Everyone knows that Yondaime sacrificed his life to kill the Kyuubi; besides, did you forget that Naruto was born that day as well?"

"Oh yeah…" Kiba said, utterly defeated once again. But one day he just knew he would figure out some sort of secret. "You know you suck Shino, ruining my fun!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ohhh?" The woman leaning against a tree across the clearing muttered as she spotted Arashi walk out of the foliage, a wide smile appearing on her face as she looked him up and down. "I got a cute one…" She murmured quietly to herself.

Watching her push herself up from her leaning position, Arashi's mind was racing on what exactly to do. It was quite odd to him that she was just sitting there, almost waiting for him. The feeling that he had been getting since the early morning was still there, something felt off to him but he just couldn't put his finger on it. The Himura's mind was busy thinking on that, this soon changed as he noticed the look she was giving him. "What are you doing?" He called out; uneasy at the stare she was giving him as she looked him up and down like a piece of meat.

"Oh, not much…just enjoying the view." She replied, accompanied with a seductive bat of her eyes.

A blush instantly appeared on his face when she said that. Sure he had noticed some of the looks that girls gave him in the past, these were mostly from members of what Naruto jokingly called his 'Fan Club'. But he had never been so uncomfortable under a stare like this before. For one he had never had anyone look at him the way she was, like she was measuring up livestock before sending them off to market. Then again, his mind was also racing back to Hinata. What would she think about someone looking at him like that? What should he do about the situation; it was a very awkward way of starting a fight in his mind. He had actually been excited about it, but with one look he wanted to get out of there. His mind was racing again, something it seemed to be doing a lot lately, but this time his blush grew even larger as he thought of what it would be like to have Hinata look at him like she was.

Suddenly he was ripped out of his thoughts when he noticed that she was no longer in front of him. Snapping his head to the right, he was just in time to catch a hand that was shooting forward at him from behind. Grabbing her hand just a few inches from his face, he turned enough to see her elated smile as she stood behind him. "You were dazing off, so I just thought I'd wake up you up cutie…" Arashi's basically glowed with the blush on his face when she wrapped her other arm around him and pulled his back against her protruding chest. Leaning in close enough for him to feel her breath on his ear, she spoke in an enticing voice. "Why must we fight…you're quite the good looking guy. A little young but I'm sure we could find something to pass the time other than dueling it out…"

With a quick movement Arashi spun his way out of the flustering embrace he was in, quickly reaching down he flung a kunai straight at her face. It was a wasted movement thought as she jumped to the side and evaded the incoming blade. Coming to a stop a little bit away from Arashi, a smirk spread swiftly across her face. "That's a 'no' I guess…that's too bad. We would have had lots of fun." She uttered with a wink at the boy.

Shaking his head, Arashi was determined not to seem anything less than confident, otherwise his opponent would take advantage and capitalize on it. "No thanks, I have someone anyway…"

"Ah…I see now." Kinme said with a grin, thinking on how she can push Arashi just the way she wanted to. If she was going to have to fight these Konoha punks then she was going to try her hardest to at least have some fun. "So that's why you're being so squeamish and jumpy from any type of the good kind of contact…" Letting out an odd girlish giggle she proceeded to blow Arashi a seductive kiss. "It's because you don't know what a "real woman" is!" Just looking at Arashi's face when she said that was laugh worthy, so that's what she did. Throwing her head back she laughed at him as he blushed and glared hard at her.

With every second that passed after she had made her last prodding comment, Arashi got more and more pissed off. Even he didn't fully understand it at the moment, but when the clenching of his fist got too tight and the nail of one of his fingers drew blood, something snapped inside of him and he understood. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!!" He yelled as he slammed his hand on the ground, forgoing the seals as his eyes glowed their shimmering silver color of his Kekkei Genkai.

Kinme just raised an eyebrow in interest when her enemy was engulfed in the smoke of the summoning. 'Kuchiyose…this ups the ante a bit.' She thought while a smile appeared on her face out of the intrigued look that had been there before.

After a moment the billowing smoke was carried away by the slight breeze that blew through the forest, revealing Arashi glaring at her in a Taijutsu stance and a sliver wolf snarling next to him. But Kinme simply looks at them with a sort of mild fascination, still looking him up and down. "You're much cuter when you look serious!" She squealed as her flirty gaze locked in on the deep glare she was getting from Arashi.

"Is she all we're up against?" Ragna asked as he scanned the new enemy to appear before his eyes.

"Yeah, but Hayate-sensei said that she can summon Panthers…" He responded to his summon under his breath. Getting only a wolfy grin back from his partner he focused back on Kinme as he hand slid down and gripped the hilt of his sword.

"Aww, look at that. He's got a little sword too…" She said mockingly.

"Shut up!" Arashi snapped back at her, throwing the woman off for a second. Until she smiled even bigger when she figured that this was coming from what had the boy so riled up already.

"Hina-chan is more of a woman that you'll ever be! Don't even insult her like that again by even putting her at your level. She is the greatest person I know, not some slutty chick like the one in front of me." Kinme just grinned even further; it seemed she had pushed all the right buttons on this one. "No one will ever compare in my eyes to the girl I love!" Arashi saw her raise her eyebrows as she listened to what he was saying. "Actually I feel sorry for you…you obviously don't know anything about love."

Almost instantly her expression completely changed, her smile disappeared and the flirty look that had been in her eyes vanished as well as a deep scowl replaced it. "That's really too bad…" She stated in a flat voice, she then slowly raised her had in a pose that told Arashi she was about to snap. "It's too bad you're one of 'those' romantics…no fun at all. Who needs love as long as it feels good?!" The purple haired woman said with venom in her voice before suddenly snapping loudly with a smirk slowly creeping across her face, just a few seconds later Arashi noticed a rustling in the bushes next to his enemy. 

A low growl could be heard as the shaking of the foliage became more violent. With a sniff of his nose Ragna's fur stood on end, his teeth bared, emitting a snarl. Arashi's eye's widened when he saw the two massive panthers walk into the clearing from either side of Kinme. He swallowed hard in regards to their size; they were easily twice as big as Ragna at least. With a quick suppression of any negative thoughts, Arashi moved into one of the stances in his Taijutsu knowledge. His legs bent low with his left leg extended in front of him so he kept a low center of gravity, his right arm extended in front of him with his palm open and facing the side, as well as his left hand clenched in a fist that was cocked back so it rested next to his ear ready to strike. Seeing his ally slide into his stance, Ragna's became more crouched like he was about to pounce on some unsuspecting prey. A ferocious growl almost dripped from his bared mouth as he and Arashi sized up their enemies. Thinking on it, Arashi knew that the situation wasn't in their favor. They were outnumbered, he didn't know the extent of her powers or exactly what the Panthers could do, and what was the worst was there was no doubt in his mind that the information on what he could do from his last fight would have been passed on to her.

'Look at him, trying to be calm and calculation…this should be real fun.' Kinme was thinking as she watched his brow knit together in concentration as the tension of the awaiting fight was building. The suddenly she slammed her foot on the ground and pulled both fists back to rest against her sides and yelled to her Panthers. "Let's go boys! Time to tear these fools up!"

In response to the command the two reared their heads to the sky and let out a monstrous roar that felt like it shook the very ground Arashi stood upon. Looking over at Ragna he saw the wolf ready himself and look at him as well, in an exchange of nods they knew what their first move would be. Silencing their roars, the panthers then dug their hind legs into the grassy ground and shot off at their opponents.

In response Arashi dipped lower in his stance as his eyes concentrated on the big cat flying directly at him. Mere feet away the massive Panther pulled its clawed paw back and thrust out to take Arashi's head off. But at the last second he side stepped as quickly as he could, fully evading the blow. But midway through his dodge, Kinme wondered why he was smirking about it. This was instantly answered when suddenly Ragna slammed into the side of the great beast with a powerful head butt that sent the cat skidding across the grass.

But the accomplished feeling of landing a hit was short lived as Arashi was forced to take to the sky the second he finished his side step so as to avoid the claws of the other Panther. When he reached the top of his leap, fully safe for the moment from the big cats below, his searching eyes soon found themselves locked onto Kinme. He almost immediately wondered what she was doing; it didn't look like anything at all. She was just standing there with her hands clasped in the Tiger seal… "The Tiger seal?!" Arashi shouted when his mind clicked on what that meant, she had already finished the seal sequence for a jutsu was simply standing back from the action so she could find the perfect time to let the jutsu go and attack! Here he was floating back down to the earth, Arashi couldn't think of a more perfect opportunity to attack!

'Fools like him are the worst kind of idiot to battle with after all…only seeing what's in front of him and not thinking of the big picture! He had totally forgotten about little ol' me…that's going to come back and burn him!' She thought as the warming sensation of her chakra filling her lungs while she inhaled flooded her senses. 

But from his vulnerable positioning Arashi was looking at her in horror, he couldn't do anything to move from where he was. He was a sitting duck the way he was just floating through the air. Snapping his head to the side in an attempt to find Ragna so he could join him in the air for a last second push out of the way, but only started to fret the situation even more when he saw him rolling around and fighting tooth and claw in an animalistic brawl with the second panther. "Shit…" He managed to say before watching the woman below him exhale.

"Katon: Houkadangan!!" She yelled as compressed blast of fire shot out of her mouth and towards her target. Arashi's eyes went wide as the image of the attack was vastly different than what he had been expecting; he had been prepared for a massive spray of fire that ignited the sky. But what he got was a blast shooting at him like a fiery bullet streaking up towards him, reminding him of another object that had been hurdling at him not too long ago. As quickly as he could his hand moved and pulled out his shining sword as fast as he could.

Kinme just watched on with a smile as her blast hit its target and lit up the sky in a blazing red, her view of his mangled and scorched corpse blocked by the cloud of dust and smoke that resulted from the impact. "Pitiful…he really didn't put up too much of a fight now did he?" She said as she covered her eyes from the glare of the sun to watch her favorite part of this attack, when the body returned back to the ground. The panther summoner just smirked as she saw a smoky object break out of the cloud. But as the smoke cleared from the body's decent she saw the opposite of what she expected. "What the Hell?!"

What she was met with was a very much alive Arashi; she just glared as she saw him holding his sword out before him and some sort of chakra aura extending out from the blade completely covering the area in front of him. Somehow he had formed a type of shield of flowing chakra off of the blade and had the blast erupt off it and save him from harm. Touching down to the ground Arashi heaved a sigh of relief; down here he could maneuver and escape any attack she blasted his way. "I'll have to thank Hayate-sensei for teaching me that later." He said to himself with a light chuckle, glad that any serious damage had been avoided. He had several burn marks covering his pants and jacket, some just on the cloth while others had made some rather nasty burns on his skin. Nothing that was serious but something that could be a hindrance if he let it. Then coming to his senses Arashi made a swift back flip over the claws that were about to rip into his back.

A light growl permeated the air around Kinme as she glared at the boy who now had a distance put between him and her. Then with a swift snap of her fingers her companions leapt to her side, letting out a feline roar as they eyed down their enemies. Kinme just sneered at the wolf in front of her when she noticed several claw and bite marks across one of her panthers. 'I'll give it that he's better than I thought…I guess it's time to kick it up a notch!'

"This is going to be harder than I thought Ragna…" Arashi muttered as he stared down Kinme as she glared back at him. He didn't like the change of the look in her eyes, hidden behind her glare was a shine of confidence in her eyes. It was disturbing for Arashi; the only thing he could think would cause it to be there was something she was hiding. After all, she really wouldn't have to show everything with the threat of her panthers in your face.

"Those overgrown cats are formidable themselves…" The silver wolf responded, but was cut off with Arashi's agreement with his statement.

"Yeah, but with her staying back she's looking for openings to hit us with a long range attack like the last one. So even if she stays out of the actual fighting, it's still three on two."

"I agree, as long as the two of us can stay on the ground and move around we won't have to worry about her. Defeat the kitties first and we can take her out!" Ragna said quietly, gaining a small smile off the face of his ally.

All he got in response was an affirmative grunt before they were assaulted again by the massive panthers. Each one of them dodging left ad right, weaving under and around that giant claw swipes the beasts were making. Using their smaller size and speed as an advantage the two found it relatively easy to move around the great cat, which was before the ground at their feet erupted in flames when they got enough distance away from the cats! Looking over Arashi saw that should he or Ragna be in a clear shot to Kinme, she would fire the same attack Arashi blocked. Each time driving them back into the fray with the panthers, effectively controlling how her enemies moved and the battle.

It appeared in Arashi's eyes that Ragna had figured this fact out himself, with only a nod between them they had come up with a plan to try and get at her or at least to let off an attack. In an instant Arashi's eyes began to shine the spectacular silver of the Shekkeigan, with a smirk on his face he rolled to the side and avoided a paw strike and then put their plan into action. Getting out of the way, Ragna dashed straight at Kinme while Arashi jetted out from the panthers and getting distance between him and her. Now she was trapped, if she shot her fire blast at Arashi then Ragna would attack her. But if she attacked Ragna, then Arashi would attack her! Arashi could only smile, his plans had worked perfectly!

His grin only got bigger when he saw her turn towards the wolf rushing towards her. With one more speeding movement to the right of the now thoroughly confused panthers Arashi had a clear shot to his enemy who wasn't even looking at him. His mind then focused on one of his favorite jutsu and from the power of his eyes the sparking chakra gathered at the end of his outstretched finger that he was aiming at Kinme. It only took a moment for the crackling attack to fully form, making an imaginary trigger in his mind he pulled it and released the pent up chakra. "Raiton: Rai Reza!" His eyes narrowing in at his target as a smirk smeared across his face as he watched the attack arc off of his finger tip.

But suddenly and much to the boy's shock, his enemy rolled under the streaking lighting attack and righted herself with her eyes fixed directly on him. "Baka!" She yelled as she darted towards him, her fist pulled back to deliver a savage blow to him in a second. Arashi's mind was racing as he saw her right in front of him, they were too close for his to evade, she had predicted that he would try something like that and acted on it.

Things weren't looking good in the Himura's mind, but things got even worse when he noticed that her clenched fist was quickly starting to glow red and brighter with every passing moment.

"Die!" Kinme screamed as she lurched forward with her glowing fist.

But to her side she then felt a horrible pain in her left shoulder as well as a large force pushing into her. "GUUUUH!!" She yelped in pain as Ragna's teeth sank into the muscle of her shoulder, throwing her off her attack and to the ground. But as soon as Arashi was clear of an attack, the wolf released her and leapt back to safety along with Arashi so as to avoid the panthers that lunged at them in defense of their master.

Both sides were now separated by a fair distance, Ragna and Arashi glaring at the others while holding defensive stances in case of anything sudden. While the gigantic felines circled their dominating master, who was clenching her shoulder while she lay on her knees. If looks could kill, Arashi would have been dead on the spot; Kinme was looking at him with the look of a ravenous beast that had just had their meal taken away from them. "You horrid beast! I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you both!! Here and now!!" She snarled as she picked herself up, her chest heaving as she sucked in air violently.

Everything about her seemed to change the instant she received a wound, her playful demeanor was non-existent, her seductive eyes replaced by those of someone who wants nothing more than to exterminate whatsoever comes into view. A chill ran straight up Arashi's spine as he looked into those eyes, a feeling he had the misfortune of feeling the time he had gazed into the blood crazed eyes of Gaara. Arashi has a bad feeling that something was going to happen, that she had snapped.

"I'm sick of playing around with you! Screw Akuhei's plans! It's time to END THIS!!" She screamed before clamping her hands together in a hand sign and inhaling deeply. With her piercing eyes locked on Arashi's she filled her lung to bursting as he drew in air. Clamping her mouth shut to hold the gas in, she began to mold the chakra she had been accumulating for this attack.

Arashi hardly had any time to recognize what se was doing before she had sucked in as much air as she could. But it was too late to do any type of counter attack; he could only stand there frozen in place by the look coming from Kinme's eyes.

Then it happened, she released her breath and the jutsu she had activated, screaming it out as it came rocketing out of her mouth. "KATON: OKIBI!!" The flames exploded out of their confined holding place and shot out in a massive and wide blast, scorching everything in its path. Keeping her stream of chakra into the blast she focused on the course of her attack, watching every blade of grass burst into flames as her attack streaked towards her enemies. With a narrowing of her eyes she pumped even more chakra into the firestorm before her, cranking up the heat until it seemed as if the stream coming out of her mouth was white hot.

Slowly the fire jet died down as she ran out of air, ending the attack to suck in the life sustaining gas. She could only smirk as she waited for the fiery hell before her dissipate, waiting to laugh at the two piles of ash and bone that would be all that was left of the accursed boy and beast. She could almost smell that glorious stanch of burned flesh that she had come so accustomed to.

"W-What?!" She then yelled out as she saw no sign of the two anywhere in the field of destruction she had laid down.

"Thought you got us huh?" A voice above her sounded out.

Reeling her head skywards her gaze locked onto the forms of Arashi and Ragna high in the air, Arashi's jacket smoking from the close call of being burned to a crisp and Ragna's fur was looking a little shorter as well. "You!!" Kinme seethed, her attack had been for nothing. Had she not lost her cool, she could have positioned them so that there was no where to run to and taken them out.

Despite almost being burned to death, Arashi's face was lit up with a beaming smile. His mind had kicked in mid jump and he couldn't stop smiling about what he had planned for her, one way or another his problems were about to be put to an end. Looking over to his partner, he nodded with a grin and was glad when he got a toothy wolf grin back. 

"Looks like you had your turn…now it's ours!!" Arashi yelled whist his enemies looked up at him with widened eyes. He tried to fight it off, but a confident smirk began to spread across his face. Now wasn't the time to get overconfident, it was what was working in his favor this fight and he didn't want to underestimate his or Kinme's abilities. "Time to fly Ragna!!" The Himura then yelled with a grin as he and his Summon drew closer in the air and he pulled out several kunai to hold in each hand.

Then in a mightily slam, they pushed off of each other, making the other spin violently from the force of the push. Kinme's eyes grew wider as she watched the two quickly become two ferociously spinning vortexes of claws, fangs, and kunai. "Ookami Gatsuuga!!" Arashi and Ragna roared as they streaked down to earth to land their attack.

Turning back the woman threw a pointing hand at the incoming attack and screamed at her Panthers. "What are you doing!? Attack them…NOW!!"

With a snarl from each, the massive panthers crouched low and leapt with all their might, creating explosions of dirt and grass as they left the ground. Kinme gazed with a victorious smirk as she saw her Panthers approach the spinning enemies that had begun to spiral around one and other.

But the confident feeling she had was crushed in an instant when her Panther's lashed out with their razor sharp claws to attack, but then suddenly the erupted in smoke as her enemies ripped through the claws and drilled straight through them, sending them back from whence she had summoned them.

"FUCK!!" She screamed, Arashi and Ragna had dispatched her Panther's and were now on a path straight to her. Putting her hands before her she spread her fingers out wide and closed her eyes, then as she drew her hand back to her body she began inhaling as much air as she could. 'They can't evade this now…my cats might be gone. But I'm more than enough to fry these two!!' Hearing the whirring of her incoming enemies, her eyes snapped open as she let loose the same attack that they had dodges earlier. "Katon: OKIBI!!"

The blast of fire exploded out of her mouth and slammed into the approaching Konoha Shinobi and Wolf, Kinme's face was contorted into a smirking glare as she poured more and more power into the attack, planning to incinerate them right where they were. But she didn't expect was for Arashi to burst out from the firestorm engulfing him and slam into the ground. Then as quickly as he had escaped the flames, redirected his momentum and shot back towards Kinme, still a very dangerous drill of flesh and kunai. "Think you can stop us that easily? Take…THIS!!" He screamed as he collided hard with her chest, instantly stopping the flow of fire out of her mouth, instead it couched up blood as she was propelled back from the blow, slamming into one of the mighty trees that encircled them.

"Got her…" Arashi said quietly to himself as he sat crouched on all fours after coming to a sliding stop on the grassy battlefield. Above him the flames of her attack had gone and now Ragna came to a stop right next to his master, his color streaked with many black burn marks. Standing up and putting the kunai away in his pouch, Arashi moved towards his companion. "You okay buddy? You're smoking?"

"I'll be fine…it'll grow back. Is she dead?" The wolf responded, sniffing the air as he spoke. "I can't smell her, all I'm getting in the smell of smoke."

Arashi's grin dissipated as he looked in front of him to the giant hole punched into the large tree trunk before them. From where he was standing it looked like it was hollow on the inside and she had only gone through one side, and now was inside the tree. A steady plume of smoke was billowing out of the large hole, obscuring and view inside.

"I don't think that took her out…" The Chunin said while he breathed hard, trying to get his breath back. 'That was a lot of chakra used in succession…a chakra shield, dodging those Panthers, Raiton, Shunshin, and then two Ookami Gatsuuga. I hope she stays down for a while…I need to catch my breath.' Leaning over to rest his hands on his knees, Arashi glanced over to see that Ragna was panting much harder than he was.

"You sure you'll be okay?" He asked one more time, but this time was quickly answered when the wolf dropped down to sitting position.

"Gomen…I've used too much chakra. I'm afraid I won't be of much help from now on…" He said in a clearly disappointed tone.

"That's fine; you go back home and rest up real well. She doesn't have her panther's anymore…I'll handle it."

"But…"

"No, you go home." Before Ragna could protest anymore, Arashi dispelled the summoning; sending Ragna back with a puff of smoke.

His thoughts were then quickly snapped back to his hidden opponent as he felt a chakra spike coming from where he thought she was.

"Kuso, kuso, kuso…" He could barely hear coming from the hole in the tree. Inside the massive trunk, Kinme was on the ground with her back smashed half way through the other side of the tree, her head hung low and staring at her cupped hands that she held in her lap. Snapping her head up her eyed pierced the smoke billowing out of her exit, while her hands began to glow. "KUSOOOO!!"

"BOOOOOM!!" Suddenly Arashi had to shield his face when the tree unexpectedly exploded in flames. Hiding his face from the extreme heat pouring from the now flaming tree, he glimpsed Kinme standing at the epicenter of the inferno, her head hung low seemingly looking at the ground, as well as her arms hanging limp at her sides.

"W-What is this?!" Arashi yelled out to himself, awed by the magnitude of fire that came out of nowhere. 

"You little shit…" He then heard come calmly out of the mouth of is enflamed enemy. "You little shit, first you talk down to me about love, then your flee-bitten mutt bites me, and then you ruin my favorite flak jacket…" The Chunin vest that she had been wearing was now shredded and just hanging on by the shoulders, the shit underneath had many rips on it and the sleeves seemed to have been ripped off as well. "Why couldn't you just die like you were supposed too?"

Her eyes were locked with his, and for the first time in his life Arashi had found someone whose stare was more terrifying than Sakura's. His eyes quickly escaped her gaze when she took a step out from where she had been standing and onto the fried grass before her. Arashi was now getting worried, with every step she took, the flames spread faster towards him and the heat rose even more.

"But worse than all the rest…you hurt my cute little panthers!!" Kinme yelled, before an intense wave of fire flowed off of her and over the remaining grass.

The wave of flames was quickly approaching Arashi, but all of a sudden his mind went blank. The fight was nothing, his mission was nothing, the only thing that seemed to matter to his mind anymore was the unbearable heat surrounding him. He wanted to escape, to run away from the fire and plunge into a cold ocean. To go to the coldest thing he had ever experienced…and that's when his mind suddenly was transported back to the Land of Waved. He wasn't in an inferno of fire anymore, he was in Haku's Ice Mirror prison, and it was cold. He could feel the air, ice cold and moist; he could feel that chakra weaved into the cold bliss that encircled him there.

Then suddenly he snapped out of it and smiled. In an instant his eyes changed to bright silver color of his Kekkei Genkai, and he thrust his arms forward, holding them extended to each side of him. With a mere intention and surge of chakra, he could feel the heat disappear. Looking down he saw the grass below his feet encased in ice, and for about five feet in from of him to every side everything was frozen solid. But beyond that line everything was burning.

Using the Hyouton he picked up from Haku, he had been quick enough to make almost a little bubble of frosted air and iced ground amid the inferno of flames that raged outside it. To say Kinme was rather confused would be quote an understatement, one second she's about to fry the boy into a fine powder, and the next he's in the middle of a circle of ice.

Raising an eyebrow, she manipulates her fire so that instead of it running rampant through the clearing, it instead is concentrated round Arashi, with a stream of it connecting it to its source…her.

"They never told me you could use ice…" She remarked, breaking the silence that had been drowned out by the roaring of her fires. The Kumo Nin then smirked as she took a few steps closer to Arashi, the heat and flames encircling him growing with each step. Scrunching his face in concentration he pushed more chakra into keeping the fire at bay, and himself burn-free for the moment.

"It's rather sad actually…" Kinme scoffed, glaring through the flames before her and straight at Arashi. "You showed some good speed earlier, and now look at you. Grounded like bird with its wings cut off, I'm sure all sorts of thoughts on how to move around are rushing through that head of your's. But…" Thrusting her hands out to her sides, the stream of fire spread rapidly to engulf a larger area around them.

Arashi could only stare wide-eyed at her, specifically at the fire that engulfed her yet caused no burns, even to her cloths.

"It's amazing isn't it?" She asked him, her voice returned to its flirty and playful tone. Tilting her head to the side she batted her eyelashes at him and smiled. "It's my clan's special technique."

The instant the uttered that phrase, an idea sprung in Arashi's mind and his shinobi training kicked in. _"Know yourself and you'll win half of your battles, but know your enemy and you'll win them all."_ Iruka's voice echoed in Arashi's mind, he was in the position to find out some details he could use for his benefit; also there could be a slight possibility that it was a Kekkei Genkai. If it was he could take advantage and fight her on her grounds. "Special technique? I've never heard of anything like this before." He said in a low growl, playing the part of the frustrated enemy.

The woman before him simply raised an eyebrow slightly in response to his retort. "There's a reason for that fool, a good clan doesn't go around showing people their prized jutsu…" She stated before letting out a small laugh. "Unlike the stupid clans in your village like your Nara can, their shadow usage is well known in Kumo and I would expect in many other villages too."

'Damn; it's not a Kekkei Genkai, just a highly specialized jutsu like Shikamaru's or Chouji's. But I didn't find anything useful out of that…' 

While keeping on hand spread out and pointed at the ground, keeping the stream of fire consistent, she then raised her right hand to Arashi's eye level and smirked. With a flick of her wrist a shot of flames erupted from her palm, streaking to Arashi's left and colliding with a tree, instantly setting it aflame. "You see, I use my chakra start fire and to control the movements and size of it. Depending on where I release my chakra I can cook you hundreds of different ways…" She explained with an ominous glint in her eye before breaking out into a satisfied laugh.

The Himura just looked hard at what she had done while his mind raced with his thoughts. 'I don't specifically know how she could be starting the fire, but it's definitely originating from her Tenketsu. If I'm right, she expels chakra just like the Hyuuga, except its not just regular chakra but its elemental chakra, Katon chakra. Her clan must be specialized in Katon, I've only seen her use that type of jutsu…I can see how her chakra is working with Byakugan!'

Closing his silver eyes, his ice ring shrunk a little as he diverted some of the chakra keeping it in existence to his eyes. "Byakugan." He said quietly under his breath as he snapped his eyes open "W-What?" He instantly said in shock, the normal view scope of the Byakugan wasn't there, he felt no bulging veins on the side of his eyes, nor could he see anything that he couldn't a moment before. For some reason the Byakugan didn't activate, the instant that realization crossed his mind Arashi's blood ran cold. What was going on, what there something wrong with his Shekkeigan?

'Yondaime! What's happening here?' Arashi called out in his mind, this had never happened before, out of all of his acquired Kekkei Genkai Byakugan was his most used and familiar, it not working all of a sudden made the boy question if his Hyouton would hold up to the flames much longer.

Arashi hadn't heard from the Ex-Hokage in a long time, too busy with the issues of the mission and impending attacks recently even to give him a visit in his sleep which he regularly did. So the thought that Yondaime wouldn't even respond was fresh in his mind. **"I never heard of anything like this happening, I don't really know."** Despite his lack of an immediate explanation that Arashi was used to, the boy was relieved that his contact with the man was still intact.

'But I don't understand how something like this could happen! Especially with the Byakugan, I just don't get it!'

Arashi just stood there, his mind trying to focus on finding answers to this new dilemma with Yondaime, but at the same time trying to keep focus on using Hyouton. The end result of this split of Arashi's attention being the need to use more chakra than should have been needed.

"**The only thing that makes sense is that the Shekkeigan has limitations, that only one Kekkei Genkai can be used at a time! With you using Hyouton, the use of any others isn't possible."** The Hokage said; it made sense with what had happened as well as what he had found out by looking around and trying to figure out just how the rare bloodline trait worked.

'I guess that makes sense…' He responded in his mind, but then suddenly his whole body trembled. Now breathing hard, Arashi was significantly feeling the amount of chakra that the use of Hyouton was taking. 'Any idea why I can't use two at the same time, or why Hyouton is using up a lot more chakra to use than Byakugan or Sharingan?'

"**Now that I can answer, recently I became rather curious about just how the Shekkeigan worked and looked around for some answers. Thinking back on research done by the Himura clan when I was Hokage, as well as looking around your mind and body to see reactions to how it is used."**

"**What I found was that the process of using other's Kekkei Genkai was far more complicated than I thought. How you do it is by changing your body's structure, use, and composition to use the powers gained from others. More specifically the true power of the Shekkeigan is the manipulation of the user's own DNA, shifting to what is perceived by observing the Kekkei Genkai of others!"**

"**It really is amazing, but because it is so complicated it can use up a ton of chakra for certain things. Since Byakugan and Sharingan are Doujutsu, it's only the eyes that are changed and manipulated by the Shekkeigan. But Hyouton consists of the whole body's ability to create, form and manipulate ice from combining Fuuton and Suiton. So there has to be a change in your whole body's DNA sequencing to achieve this ability, so the chakra used to orchestrate such a change is many times greater than the chakra needed for Doujutsu activation."**

Not really knowing the implications that DNA manipulation meant, Arashi mainly picked up that Hyouton was riskier to use that the Doujutsu. 'I really didn't understand all of that, but now's not really the time to be thinking about this. I'm almost out of chakra and I need to end this fight soon or I'm finished. Yondaime-sama, can you lend me some chakra to defeat this bitch. I can't forgive her for insulting Hina-chan!'

But instead of the warming sensation of Yondaime's yellow chakra flowing over him, be felt no change in himself or his chakra levels. **"I'm sorry Arashi, but I'm not going to allow that."**

'What? Why not? I could die here if I don't take her down now!!'

"**This is your first mission as commander, it is your mission and you need to complete it. You can't always depend on others to get you out of trouble, especially me. You should always know when to turn for help, but you must also know that you can do things yourself. I'm sorry, but this is a lesson you must learn."**

"Kuso!" Arashi said out loud, with Yondaime's refusal he decided to follow the Hokage's lesson, even though he was very worried about the lack of chakra he was feeling.

Meanwhile Kinme was breathing hard as well, she could see Arashi's condition in regards to his remaining chakra, but he wasn't alone. Using the fire techniques was a risky decision for her clan, while it was very powerful and useful it used a tremendous amount of chakra. That was the main reason it is saved as a last resort for the people of her clan. "Looks like you can't hold that ice up for much longer!"

"AHHHH!" Arashi suddenly screamed, the ice at his feet rushing out at tremendous speed, smothering a section of the fire surrounding him and giving him a route out of the inferno. Leaping back, Arashi landed away from the fire, and free to attack.

But as soon as he landed he fell to one knee, breathing heavily and violently. Kinme, growled at the sight before her. With a wave of her hand the raging fire that consumed most of the clearing vanished, leaving a field of ashes. She was feeling the strain of chakra depletion on her and saw no need to keep wasting it by keeping the wildfire going. The woman gazed at Arashi as he raised himself to a standing position, his ice gone, and breathing just as heavy as she was. "Looks like this is the end…the final attack for both of us, that spinning attack earlier hurt like hell…now I'll return the pain tenfold!"

Arashi was now very worried; Kinme had declared she was going to have a final attack. He had almost no chakra left, maybe enough for a fast dash at her along a small use of Hyouton. But definitely not enough for any of his other jutsu, especially Rasengan, he new he should have used that instead of Ookami Gatsuuga, it would have done far more damage. But even if it had and she survived he would have been in a worse situation than he had been. He only had one option attack wise, it was something he would have to pull off.

Planting his right foot and focusing his eyes on Kinme, Arashi's position lowered into a much more bent and ready to speed off for attack position. His hands slowly drifted to his left and gently grasped the hilt of the sword strapped to his left side. Sliding it out of the saya about an inch he used the last of his chakra to coat the blade in ice, ensuring that no fire attacks would harm the blade. Now all the chakra he had left was only enough for quick burst of speed for attack.

"Che…" Kinme scoffed when she saw him ready his katana. "Looks like you don't even have enough chakra for a decent last jutsu!"

His eyes beginning to get heavy from chakra depletion, Arashi spoke up in a chiding tone. "Doesn't' matter…I don't wouldn't need one to…put you away!" The Himura said between breaths, a grin on his face.

"You little brat, what makes you think that dinky little piece of steel is going to help you?" Her eyes flared open as she directed the last bit of chakra, preparing form her final attack. Suddenly two huge bursts of fire erupted from her back, shooting off with force and arching back, making it almost seem they were wings of flames. The two surges of flame bursting from her had forced her to plant a leg in front of her, so that she wouldn't go flying forward before she was ready, but it was getting hard to stay stationary due to the force the blaze was trying to propel her at. "AHHHHHH!!" Kinme then roared as two streams of fire flowed from her shoulders and engulfed each arm, coming to a bright blue flame on each fist.

Returning her gaze to Arashi, she exhaled steam as she fought against the force trying to move her. "There…my final attack form…Shakaku!"

She lit the forest up with the light coming from her; Arashi's eyes were narrowed in concentration at the inevitable attack coming his way. Trying to calm his mind, he tightened his grip on Heijin and then channeled the very last of his chakra into his legs, preparing to rush at her as fast as they could carry him.

Crouching even further in preparation to launch, each of them glared into the other's eyes. "It's time to finish this!" Arashi said with authority.

"You are a fool!! I'm going to crush you! And throw you into the wind!!" She shrieked, the intent to kill reflected in her eyes like the glare of a light off of a mirror. "Time to DIE!!"

Then in an instant the two enemies shot out at each other, and in that instant everything seemed to slow down. Every step brought them closer to the end of the battle, each believing that they would come out victorious. Each step the other became impressed by the other's speed; Kinme propelled forward like a rocket, the blazing plumes of fire driving her forward like one, and Arashi moving as fast as he could in the condition he was in. Each step Arashi could feel the burn in his legs as they consumed the last drops of his chakra added onto the actual burns he sported on them from earlier fire blasts from Kinme.

Then in one sweeping movement Arashi struck out with Heijin as Kinme thrust her flaming fist directly at his face, a fist that would burn whatever it touched horribly. They were now too close to dodge or break off the attack, it would soon be over. But then something happened that Kinme did not intend on, there suddenly was a lancing pain that arched over her entire left arm. She instantly realized that it was the bite wound she had received from Ragna earlier; in the very last instant before each attack connected she was horrified to see that the pain in her arm had made her move it in reaction to it. Instead of flying forward to smash into Arashi's face and burn it to where it would be unrecognizable, it was now inches away from his shoulder.

The instant the two attacks came together the entire clearing was engulfed in dust and ash as the wind following each was sucked into the center. The only sound heard being that of two people struggling to breath. With a gust of wind, the debris was cleared, leaving the two Shinobi about standing calmly about ten feet apart and facing the opposite direction.

"GUUUUUH!" Arashi suddenly yelled as his right arm shot up to grip his left shoulder, letting Heijin fall clanking to the ground, the entire left side of his jacket had been burned off and he had been badly burned. Slumping over to his knees he finally succumbed to chakra depletion, passing out on the ground as the pain from his wounds washed over him.

"Heh…little fucker." The woman said softly, but the instant she moved blood splattered to the ground. A deep slash had been put on her left side, it was bleeding badly with blood pooling around her feet. Slowly and shakily, she turned back towards Arashi; she only had a little chakra left.

Then almost falling over; she hacked up some more blood, retching as she heard the thick liquid splash on the ground. She had won, she had beaten the last of the Himura, and the people of Kumo would celebrate her achievement. All she needed was his head; while she had won the fight victory in the eyes of Kumo wasn't absolute until one was dead.

But upon taking the first step his way an intense wave of pain flooded every nerve in her body, the slash had been deeper than she figured. Then, using some of her last chakra her hand flared up once more in fire, then she gripped it against her newest wound. "UAAAH!" She grunted as the fire seared the wound shut, the smell of burnt flesh seeping into her nostrils.

Keeping her hand over the fresh burn, she staggered forward. She didn't have enough chakra for anymore fire, but the boy was out cold. All she needed was her hands and a strong grip around his neck. Finally reaching him, she stared down at his unconscious body, still gripping his shoulder in pain. "It's a shame…I couldn't see the face of your little girlie when she finds out your dead…"

"Aaaah…" She then gasped in response to the horrible pain she suddenly felt radiating from her chest. "W-What?" Kinme then stammered when she saw the long blade of a sword jutting out from her chest.

"Guess I got here just in time." A distinctly older voice said behind her.

She was about to say something, but with a twist of the blade her eyes then rolled back into her skull as her lest breath left her.

After checking that there was no pulse, Hayate casually flung the corpse off to the side. "I'm sorry I couldn't get here sooner Arashi." The Jonin said as he gingerly picked the Himura up and gently put the boy on his back. "There's something fishy going on with these fights…" He said before lightly coughing. "Hold on Naruto…Hinata, I'll be there soon."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(Earlier)

"Whoa! Look at that Hinata-chan!" Naruto proclaimed, stopping their speedy trek towards the capital.

Stopping as well Hinata turned to see a gigantic plume of dark black smoke floating up from an area several miles behind them. Immediately she knew that it was where Arashi was doing battle with that woman that had bothered Getsurei so much. "It's Arashi-kun…"

"Of course it is! He must really be kicking some ass to make a cloud of smoke that big!" Naruto proclaimed victoriously.

"No…" Getsurei said disappointedly, his arms crossed and leaning against tree stump to the side of Naruto and Hinata. "Kinme's specialty is fire; she caused that…not Arashi."

Hearing this Hinata clasped her hands together in worry. "G-Gomen Naruto…b-but I have to go help Arashi-kun!" She stammered out before she turned to leave.

But before she could she was stopped by Naruto's hand on her shoulder. "Hinata-chan…Arashi is strong, he can handle himself. You shouldn't worry about him; I know he wouldn't want you too." Then looking her straight in the eyes his face changed to become very serious. "I'm sure he's more worried about us and what's to come than what he's doing right now."

"Y-You're right Naruto-kun…" She responded as she wiped a tear out of her eye.

Naruto just put his hands behind his head and strolled off in the direction they had been heading in, making sure to stay in the tree cover and away from the rocky drop just outside it. "Besides, I'm here! And I'm not going to let anything bad happen!"

"BOOOM!" Suddenly an explosion rocked the spot where Naruto had just stepped, tossing him high into the air.

"Naruto!!" Hinata yelled, watching him float in midair, looking frantically around him for a source of the blast.

Then in an instant a blur collided with Naruto, a fist slamming hard into the boy's gut. Sending him careening out of the tree cover and over the edge of the cliff, followed closely by whatever had hit him.

Sprinting to the edge Hinata looked in horror as Naruto fell beyond her sight. "NARUTOOO!!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**What is going to happen with Naruto? What hit him? What will happen with Arashi? And what of the leader Akuhei? All will be answered next time!!**

**The funny thing about this chapter was that it was supposed to be Naruto and Arashi's fight, but Arashi's went too long so I had to split it into more chapters. SO look for Naruto's fight next chapter.**

**Well I'm so sorry about this taking forever to come out!! Really I am! I have been dedicating myself to my school work and that has taken up nearly all of my time. That and any time that I wasn't using for that was used on new mangas and animes I got addicted to. Seriously everyone go read Fairy Tale and watch Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann!**

**That and I had been severely lacking on motivation to do this chapter slapped on top of a huge quantity of Writer's Block no Jutsu! It wasn't until I got some messages complaining about my lack of chapter that I kicked my butt in gear today and wrote about ¾ of this! So in the future, if its been a while between updates, just pester me about or just message me and get in a discussion about TAC and it will make me want to get cracking on the new chapter.**

**Thanks and please review!!**

**Jutsu List:**

Katon: Houkadangan – Katon: Fire Bullets

Raiton: Rai Reza – Raiton: Lighting Laser

Katon: Okibi – Katon: Blazing Fire

Shakaku – Angel of Fire


	35. AN

I have vastly overstepped the time I said I was going to be taking off and I greatly apologize. But sadly I don't have the drive for this story that I used to, I have a drive for later things and all of the plans I have for the later plot. But I'm stuck in the original arc I made. I desperately want to get through it, but I'm not driven enough right now to do it.

So I am you…the reader. Help me out; what I really need is a renewed interest in the story. I've said it before that all I need is to be pestered and I stand by that. PM me or review on this and bug me about getting the next chapter up. Ask questions that I'll need to answer.

Only You can prevent forest fires! Oh wait; I'm not Smokey…what I meant was only you can get me writing again. I'm really trying on my own but I need your help!


	36. Naruto's Struggle

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto; just Arashi and any other OCs.

Gomen…Gomen! I am so very sorry that this has taken so incredibly long to get to! I can't exactly say that I have been too busy to work on this, because I wasn't. I just had lost interest in it for a while. But now the clawing feeling in the back of my mind has gotten too much for me, so I dedicated myself towards getting back into TAC! In doing so I went back and re-read the entire story in two days. Once again I'm sorry that this has taken so long. But the good news is that the chapter after this one is the last chapter in this arc and then we get to the Sasuke retrieval Arc! I have so many plans for that, that I can't wait! So the updates will be coming much much faster once I start that! Thanks for continuing to read my work and please review!

Okay, so here is my A/N from when I finished the chapter. Like the paragraph before this I must say that I am incredibly sorry that this has taken so incredibly long to come out with, it truly is something I'm ashamed with. But as most of you know, and experience; fanfics are not the only thing that happens in life. I'm in college and taking time out to do this is extremely difficult as well as a drain on my time to do other things that are necessary for my success. So in that sense I have no guilt in taking a break on this, I had lost my interest in the arc I'm writing and only have since got it back after re-reading it for a second time. More or less, I re-sparked my interest in this arc simply for the fact that I have so many ideas for the things to come, things I'm actually excited about. So instead of going back and deleting this arc I'm gritting my teeth and finishing it while making it as good as I can. Also I still do look forward to Hinata's chapter; it really is this chapter that I haven't been too excited about. So as someone who has been writing for a couple years I once again thank you for continuing to read my work and as always your reviews are greatly appreciated and looked for.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_(Previously)_

_Naruto just put his hands behind his head and strolled off in the direction they had been heading in, making sure to stay in the tree cover and away from the rocky drop just outside it. "Besides, I'm here! And I'm not going to let anything bad happen!"_

"_BOOOM!" Suddenly an explosion rocked the spot where Naruto had just stepped, tossing him high into the air._

"_Naruto!" Hinata yelled, watching him float in midair, looking frantically around him for a source of the blast._

_Then in an instant a blur collided with Naruto, a fist slamming hard into the boy's gut. Sending him careening out of the tree cover and over the edge of the cliff, followed closely by whatever had hit him._

_Sprinting to the edge Hinata looked in horror as Naruto fell beyond her sight. "NARUTOOO!"_

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"AAHHHH!" Naruto screamed as he plummeted downwards at astonishing speeds. 'Gotta think! Gotta think!' He screamed in his mind before coming to an idea. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" He said as he crossed his hands in the all too familiar seal, resulting in the new existence of a second Naruto falling alongside the original.

"Throw me!" He yelled to his clone, who merely nodded. Gripping onto his jacket, the Bunshin twisted in the air and flung Naruto towards the cliff side. Directing chakra to his hands he lashed out at the rock and attached himself to it. Now with a grip on the stone he grabbed harder, slowing himself down until he was finally dangling about twenty feet from the tops of the huge bushes that littered the rocky ground below. "Well that was close…" He said with a sigh.

But just as quickly as the last hit, Naruto was suddenly hit fast and hit hard by a kick coming from straight above. Causing the blond ninja to careen towards the welcoming shrubbery, only to smash into one of them and rip through its branches, finally coming to a painful stop on the rocky ground.

Crawling out from under the thick leaves, Naruto looked up to see a boy maybe three years older than him glaring down at him. "Why, oh why do I get the flunkie?" He muttered to himself as he pulled the hood of his back to reveal his spiked and braided dirty blond hair. "He's far below my level."

Hearing himself be referred to as a flunkie again wasn't something that Naruto really wanted to hear, making the Jinchuuriki glare hard at him as he got up and dusted himself off.

"Scary looks and optimism aren't going to get you out of this one kid, you're up against someone bigger than you." The guy said in a condescending voice as he led his arms crossed before him.

"Bigger than me? What are you joking? You're shorter than me bud!" Naruto exclaimed as the other person's eyes began to twitch in anger.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT YOU WANT TO SQUISH LIKE AN ANT!"" He screamed back at Naruto as he jumped up and down angrily.

Meanwhile Naruto just looked on with a dumbfounded look. "I never said anything like that…"

"It doesn't matter! Anyone who makes fun of the greatest vertically impaired person on the planet will pay! You have insulted the great Oki and will pay with your life!" He yelled as he pulled a kunai seemingly out from the large box he wore on his back, but what got Naruto's attention was that there was a thin wire attached to the end that led back to the box. "Who the hell do you think I am?" He chuckled before thrusting the kunai skywards while showing a confident smirk directed at Naruto. "Known far and wide as a shadow of death in the night, the great Oni leader of the 12 Shinobi Guardsmen and the man whose kunai will pierce the heavens! I am the great Oki-sama!"

'Is this guy an idiot or something?' Naruto screamed in his head as he stood there slack jawed at the ridiculous person before him. "Regardless…" Naruto said as he reached to his right and produces a kunai of his own from his weapon holster.

Naruto was about to continue but was interrupted by Oki. "It doesn't matter what you think you're going to do or how you're going to do it. Nothing you could have done in the past could warrant you winning here today."

The orange clad Shinobi just raised an eyebrow to the other. "Warrant it? What the hell does that mean teme?"

"The world works on the premise of equivalency." Oki stated like he was repeating a mantra as he looked coldly at Naruto. "To achieve anything in this life you must first give something up; to obtain, something of equal value must be lost. It is the governing law of this world, something that can not be broken and that nature itself follows." After finishing, he sighed lightly before scowling at Naruto. "So what have you lost in order to think you could defeat me?"

Naruto didn't at first respond, he had never thought of the world in such a way. He knew that to get something he had to work hard and devote himself to something, but he never thought of it as losing something. Could time be equated as equal to the payoff of training? Could the final product of his dreams be set at a certain value that he had to reach before he obtained his dreams? In thinking about that he found what to say in response. "I've given up nothing."

Oki just chuckled at the boy. "Then you might as well just let me kill you!"

"Oh yeah? Well what have you given up then?" Naruto sneered at Oki.

"A life and loyalty…" He responded grimly. "I betrayed my previous master Ieyasu-sama so that my new master could rise to power. The man I had sworn to protect was killed because I had put my faith in his son and the change that will come about with his ascension to the throne." There was pain in Oki's eyes as he retold what had happened before. "It is my belief in what Akuhei-sama will do, that he will bring about a better world for myself and my family, that gives what I have done value. A value that is to be put to use in securing the success of my mission! I believe in the me who believes in him, and that belief give me the strength needed to defeat anyone in Akuhei-sama's path."

Now glaring fully at Naruto, Oki began to twirl the kunai in his hand by the wire attached to the back of it. "Now…it's time for your life to end. I want to end this quickly so come at me with all you have; I want to get back in time to assist the others!" He said with venom and contempt dripping from his words as he slowly waked Naruto's way.

"Heh heh heh…" Naruto chuckled as he thrust his hands to his back and pulled out the brass knuckles that Hayate had given him, falling into a taijutsu stance while still keeping the kunai held tightly in his right hand. "For once I think we're on the same page!" Naruto said through a smirk. "Let's go!"

Leaping forward Naruto struck out at his enemy with a lightning fast side kick aimed at Oki's exposed head. But with a smirk and an instantaneous duck under Naruto's kick, he lashed forward with his kunai towards Naruto's gut at he floated through the air. Seeing the incoming blade attack the Genin latched onto Oki's thrusting arm and with a twist in the air landed with both feet on the ground. Turning with his arm still in a death grip, Naruto pulled the boy towards him, making him stumble forward, falling directing into the brass knuckled punch rocketing for his nose.

But with a pivot of his foot Oki spun low, avoiding the possibly devastating punch and sweeping his legs with his own. Making use of the grip on his arm Oki continued to spin, flinging Naruto off him in the process.

Coming to a sliding stop, Naruto smiled brightly at the level of taijutsu he was engaging in, he always loved a good brawl and here he was going to get a high level one. But his grinning was cut short as he dodged left to avoid a high kick from the other fighter. Trying to gain some distance, Naruto soon was forced to weave in and out of a flurry of swift kicks thrown at incredible speed.

'He's great on his feet, fighting with primarily kicks while being capable of holding up a defense with his arms.' He thought as he continued weaving through the massive kicks being thrown at him, while blocking the ones that got through with his now throbbing forearm. 'It's not exactly my style, but it's something I can use to my advantage!'

Falling to his knees, Naruto raised his left arm over his head and caught a vicious heel drop aimed at his skull. "Too close!" Naruto exclaimed with a large grin as he pushed the blocked leg aside, then jumping upwards he threw his metallic fist hard into Oki's unprotected stomach. But his smirk was knocked off his face when the knee of Oki's other leg came crashing into the boy's face, sending him flying backwards.

Both fighters hit the ground with a sharp thud, but as quickly as they fell, they were both back on their feet glaring down their opponent. 'Damn, how did he hit me with his other leg? Did he jump to do it?' He thought as he saw Oki grimace as he stood straight, gripping his abdomen, resulting in Naruto having to fight down a growing smirk. 'He sacrificed the hit in order to attack me…what an idiot!' Whipping the blood trickling down from his nose, he looked optimistically at his opponent.

"Whatever you're thinking…it is not going to work." Oki uttered when he saw the grin plastered on Naruto's face. Standing up while still holding his abdomen, he glared hard at his opponent. He had hoped that the blow he gave him would be hard enough to rattle his brain around, but it would seem that he had pulled himself back enough so as to not take the full force. Reaching back he replaced the kunai he had before and while getting down in his taijutsu stance he started to see how he could end this meaningless bout.

'I shouldn't give him time to think, he might be like Shikamaru.' Naruto thought, moving quickly he approached Oki to cut his thought processes off before they figured out what was going on. Rolling to the left to avoid a finely placed kick that would have seriously hurt him, he sprung out of his movement so that he was now soaring above Oki.

"Fool! You're a sitting duck up there!" Thrusting his hand forward he threw one kunai directly at Naruto.

Spinning in mid-air, the blond ninja managed to move just out of the way. Stabilizing himself he began to feel the familiar pull of gravity once more. Coming down right on top of Oki, Naruto gripped his kunai tight in both hands and held in over his head. Intending on driving it deeply into his enemy.

'Is he serious?' Oki thought, when he saw Naruto open himself up for an easy counter-attack. "I don't think so! You die NOW!"

They were now only just a few feet apart, Naruto's kunai plunging downward directly towards Oki's skull. All the while the Kumo Nin wore a smug grin on his face; moving with the experience of a seasoned ninja he raised his left arm and pull back his right in preparation for an attack. Slamming into his raised arm, Naruto was surprised that Oki had been able to fully block him in time. Hearing the chuckle of his opponent, Naruto's eyes went wide as he realized the counter attack heading his way. Thrusting his right arm forward while holding one of his trusty kunai, Oki aimed for the orange clad stomach sitting right in front of his face.

'No…' Naruto thought a split second before he felt the cold steel rip through his jacket and plunge into him. Driving in deep so that Oki's arm was partially inside his enemy's abdomen.

"Fool!" Oki remarked as he heard the blood splash at his feet. Then he saw something that didn't fit the situation, he saw Naruto smiling his patented grin. Then suddenly he was gone, replaced by a cloud of white smoke and a popping sound. "What the hell?" Looking at the area of smoke he searched for the trademark log that Konoha Nin kawarimi'd with, but finding none he quickly came to a conclusion. "Kage Bunshin?"

"That's right." He heard behind him, turning around as fast as he could he was met face to face with the very boy he had just mortally wounded, or so he thought. Stepping out of one of the many large bushes littering the area was Naruto.

"So…I've been…"

"Fighting a Kage Bunshin the whole time!" The blond boy remarked with a smile, basking in the apparent confusion of his opponent.

"That makes no sense! I landed a hard hit on you! If it was a Bunshin it should have dispersed!"

"About that…" Naruto said with a grin as he rubbed the back of his neck. "If I pump a lot of chakra into only one Kage Bunshin and keep my focus on him I can make him last through physical attacks. Plus, it's not like that little attack of yours did thaaat much damage."

'Shit…that little kid tricked me. I wasted some valuable time as well as showed him some of my fighting style, not to mention he got some attacks in on me and hes' perfectly fine.' Oki thought as his glare deepened on Naruto. 'Calm down, don't get too worked up, that's what he wants…' Reaching his hand up he bit down on his finger to calm his nerves. 'Think of a way to use this, we only exchanged taijutsu, I haven't used my kunai to their full potential yet and I haven't used any ninjutsu either. But then neither has he, except for Kage Bunshin, but that had been in our briefings. How stupid can I be for falling for that trick? He landed in that same freaking bush, and I just assumed that the real him stepped out of it. That kid…he's better than our intelligence pointed out, it said he was brash and overzealous; instead he's been scouting my abilities while minimizing any risk to himself. How do I even know that what I'm seeing is the real him?'

Acting quickly Oki reached behind him and flung an unwired kunai directly past Naruto and into the bush he had emerged from. Within seconds the paper bomb attached to it erupted in an explosion of fire and dust, erasing the bush from the face of the Earth. Naruto just stood before the blast unmoving with his arms still raised behind his head looking at Oki. "Oh I'm the real me, I don't think I could use the same trick on you twice. Hehe."

Sneering at him, Oki's agitation at the situation just increased. Just who did that kid think he was, not moving an inch from the blast? Had he read the situation and knew that he was out of its range, and that it wasn't aimed at him? 'Or is he just an idiot…'

A slight grin began to spread across his face as he started to think rationally again. Once more he reached behind him to his extra weapons pouch, seeing this Naruto continued to stand where he was, not bothered with something that he could easily get past. Raising his arm up high, Oki then slammed the object in his hand directly downwards, resulting in a thick purple smoke to cover him fully. "Smoke bomb?" Naruto remarked with a puzzled face.

The out of the smoke something came flying at him, with the quickness and precision of what a Shinobi should have, Naruto sent a kunai flying into the incoming object resulting in another explosion of smoke. But almost instentanionsly afterwards a kunai came slicing through the smoke and slashed through Naruto's upper left arm.

"Gah!" He grunted in pain, jumping back away from the smoke. Only for another kunai to blast forward at him, pulling his kunai out he went to block it, but no sooner had he made contact with the flying attack, the kunai cut through the metal of Naruto's blade like a knife through warm butter. Resulting in a long gash appearing on the left side of his face. 'It was electrified! He's running chakra down the wires so that those kunai can slice through anything with ease!' He thought as the blood trickled down his cheek. Getting further back, he ran through a set of hand signs and focused on the growing cloud of smoke before him while he inhaled deeply, filling his lungs to the maximum with air. "Fuuton! Kazekasui!" He exclaimed as a stream of wind expelled from his mouth, shooting towards the pillar of smoke before him. Smashing through the cloud, the wind began to push the smoke away and out over the river they were next to. Leaving a shadowy mass at the edge of the smoke as it exited the area.

Looking at the shadow as it materialized into an object, Naruto was about to rush in for some more taijutsu when his eyes widened in surprise. Instead of Oki, there was a something that looked like a snowman made out of rocks, with a face etched into the head stone so it looked like it was sticking its tongue out at Naruto.

"Kuso!" Naruto remarked as he immediately look upwards, to see the form of Oki high in the air and two wired kunai streaking straight at him. They were close…too close to dodge.

"DIE!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Walking slowly through the forest road, the two cloaked members of Akatsuki were exchanging a conversation once again that focused on their own respective art forms.

"Beauty lies in that which can out last time and be appreciated forever."

"There you go again Sasori no Danna, how many time to I have to correct you, uh? That type of thing is total shit; true beauty comes from that which can only be grasped in the split second it is created before its beauty is lost to the world!" The blond man remarked in an agitated voice, it astounded him how many times he would have to reprimand his partner.

"Blasphemy..." The crouched monster of a man remarked harshly, having finally lost his patience he was finally about to forcefully impose his views on art to his retarded partner. But just as he was about to take out his tail a robed man stepped out of the thick trees surrounding the road.

"Greetings Akatsuki." The man said, sweeping his hood back to reveal a head of silver hair and a pair of circular glasses.

"State your purpose immediately before I lop that head off your body! I'm in a really foul mood…that and I don't like having to wait." Sasori snarled at Kabuto.

"There is no need for any violence here Akatsuki." He remarked defensively as he waved his hands in front of himself. "I come bearing a message from my master, Orochimaru-sama."

Deidara just grinned as he shoved his hand into the small pouch he wore at his side. "About time, we were just on our way to say hello to that nasty snake."

Kabuto saw the man's preparations for attack and started to inch backwards, wondering if this really was a good idea. "W-Well, Orochimaru-sama knows the reason you have been searching for him at all costs and wishes for you to stop the destruction of his bases."

"Hmmm…that snake really thinks he knows why we're after him." Sasori remarked quizzically, perhaps Orochimaru was as much of a coward as he had always thought him to be. "And just why have we been searching for him, Boy?"

Reaching into his pocket, Kabuto pulled out a small ring with a kanji on the top over a purple background. "This would be the reason you're after him, the Akatsuki ring that he kept with him when he left your organization. He figured that your Leader would eventually want it back." Kabuto said very matter-of-factly.

"What luck, uh?" Deidara said with a mischievous grin plastered on his face. "We can finally quit wandering around this shitty country looking for that sicko and get back to an actual mission where I can actually have some fun!"

"Excellent, all Orochimaru-sama requests is that you halt your actions in his country and stay out of his business. If you do, he will stay out of yours as well." He said in a negotiating tone as he took as step forward to give them the ring.

But he was stopped by the gruff voice of Sasori. "Not so fast brat!"

"Is there a problem Akatsuki-san?"

"I used to be partners with that pedophile, and I know him all too well. There is no way that he would just hand over something like his Akatsuki ring, no questions asked." He sneered, knowing that either something was up or Orochimaru was desperate to get them off his back because of other plans of his.

"Oh, so you must be Sasori-sama. I cannot say your name has been spoken of highly or frequently in our bases, but it has been mentioned." Kabuto replied in his normal neutral voice. "Orochimaru-sama has some important plans about to be enacted and cannot afford to have people such as you and your organization sniffing around his business at the moment, I can assure you there is no malcontent or deception in our offer."

"Direct some chakra into that ring and we'll see just how truthful Orochimaru is about this little 'deal'" Sasori growled as he did the same.

Not really getting the caution Sasori was using in the matter, Kabuto did as he was told and injected a bit of his chakra into the ring he held in his hands. He then watched as it began to glow a faint light green color, reacting the same way the ring in Sasori's hand was doing.

"Well look at that Uh! He really is giving up his ring Danna!" Deidara remarked in surprise, from hearing about Orochimaru from Sasori he too had doubts on how this transaction was going.

"Very well, we agree to your terms boy. Hand over the ring and we will leave Orochimaru to his own devices." Sasori grunted, still not truly trusting the situation, there was something fishy about this. His suspicions had been correct in that the Snake had an important plan setup. But now he was curious as to just what exactly it was, if it was Orochimaru, even Tsunade could win a bet saying that it had to do with Konoha.

Tossing the ring over, Deidara caught it, depositing it inside his cloak and casually turning around to return the way they came. "It was a pleasure doing business with you." Kabuto finally said before he shunshin'd away, leaving only a cloud of smoke.

Turning to follow Deidara, Sasori began to chuckle to himself. "So he's still Orochimaru's subordinate…hahaha."

Elsewhere in a dark candle lit room, Orochimaru sat in his large chair, groaning in his perpetual pain. Looking up when he heard footsteps coming towards his chamber he was soon greeted by the grinning face of his most trusted subordinate. "How did it go Kabuto?" He hissed.

"Perfectly. They took the ring and are now leaving the area. But you were right about Sasori-sama, he did ask to show that the ring was real." Looking over to the table next to Orochimaru, Kabuto eyed the old shriveled hand with the ring still on it, seeing it he just smirked even more. "It seems that the flake scratched off the stone within your ring worked the way you thought it would."

"Yes, and with the tracking device hidden in it we will be able to locate their main base of operations as well. No doubt Leader-sama will want the ring so he can hand it out again." He said with his all too familiar evil laugh. "But it is hidden so well that even Sasori's expertise will be able to find it. They will think it's the real deal. Only after it fails at its purpose will they find out its not real. But by then my plans will have already happened and we will be long gone!"

"You truly are a genius Orochimaru-sama…so when does the plan begin?"

"Soon…very soon." He uttered with the kind of malice and nefarious intent that only someone like him could produce.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Shit!" Naruto yelled as he saw the sparking blades right before him, they were to close to dodge, so he did the only thing he could in the situation. He crossed his arms in front of him, trying to protect his abdomen and chest.

'Plunk' He heard, the sound of kunai hitting their target, but oddly enough he didn't feel the sharp pain of being pierced by the bladed weapons. Pulling his arms aside, he quickly looked around and found that the kunai had missed him completely and were lodged in the ground on either side of him.

"HA! You missed me you short ass retar…" Naruto began to yell confidently at Oki, when suddenly the ground beneath him exploded with tremendous force, just like it had done when he was separated from Hinata and Getsurei.

Flying backwards, he skidded across the rocky ground, finally coming to a stop about twenty feet away from where he had been. Groaning in pain, he could smell the distinctive reek of burned cloths as well he could feel what would clearly be dark bruises from the rocks that had hit him. 'What the hell was that? Does he have paper bombs hidden underground?'

"DON'T CALL ME SMALL!" Oki then yelled at the downed Shinobi, Naruto could clearly see the anger reflected in his eyes. "Well how did you like the blast? You might as well get used to them because you have a lot more in store for you."

Struggling to get to his feet, Naruto glared at Oki, resting his arm on his knee as he bent over. "Why are you doing this!"

"I thought I had already made that clear. I am securing the success of Akuhei-sama's reign as the new Daimyo of our country. Ensuring a life of peace and prosperity for all those who accept his rule, and death and damnation for those who rise against him." He remarked coldly, spitting out words passionlessly.

"No, I mean why are you following a guy like that? You said that he killed his own father to get what he wants, and you're trying to kill his older brother so that he becomes Daimyo! Doesn't that seem wrong!"

"It is merely a sacrifice to what will come. I believe in Akuhei-sama, he has my unwavering trust in his decisions and I will continue to support him for as long as I am permitted to live." Looking down, and showing a bit of humanity through his expression. "When my family needed assistance he was the only one who helped…he was the only one that wanted to help. Ieyasu-sama said there wasn't enough room in the budget to assist me. But Akuhei-sama paid to help us out of his own money, he believed in me and what I can do, so in exchange for his sacrifice I will help him so I can repay the debt I owe him."

"What did he help you out with?" Naruto inquired, he couldn't put his finger on it but there was something about him that he connected to.

"My little sister, she had a medical problem a few years ago and she would surely die if she didn't get surgery. But we couldn't afford to pay for it, I went to Ieyasu-sama about it but he refused. Then Akuhei-sama offered to pay for it all, he said I was one of his friends and that what was his was mine when I needed it. We had gone to the academy together so we truly had been friends, but once getting deep into the Shinobi life we drifted apart. It wasn't until I became a guardsman that I met him again, I was happy to be protecting my friend's family. And it wasn't just with the surgery, he has many things he is going to do when he becomes Daimyo that will help everyone who will accept them."

Shaking his head, Oki's face returned to a glare. "I don't know why I'm telling you that, but let's reverse the question. Why do you follow the Himura?"

"Follow?" Naruto said questioningly before breaking out into a hard laugh. "I don't follow him, he's my best friend and we both believe and support each other. We've grown up together, done pretty much everything together, and we strive for the same things. We help each other out, it just so happened that he was promoted Chunin first, so I'm under him for this mission. I don't follow Arashi, we're going on our journey through life together."

Oki then began to laugh at the answer he had been given. "You sound just like me, a long time ago, before I knew the true nature of the world. You're how I was with Akuhei-sama back in the day! We both believed in each other and assisted each other to reach our goals." Suddenly his face turned from amused to serious. "But that isn't how life is, life is competition, scratching and clawing your way towards what you will become. Damn those in your way, they will only hinder your progress. I learned that the hard way when Akuhei-sama showed me how superior he was to me. Since them I have accepted that I am beneath him, even thought we once thought that we could continue through life side by side." He said before laughing at Naruto once more. "You'll learn soon…or you would have, since you're going to die here today. You would have learned that you would have eventually settled just who is superior and who is inadequate."

"You're even more of a fool than I thought!" Oki continued. "No matter what, you can't go through life equally, sooner or later you'll have to show who's the best. You shouldn't be trying to support each other, instead you should be trying to crush and surpass him! Hahaha! You're a total idiot!"

But his laughing was cut short as he felt the air around him begin to swirl towards Naruto. Looking over he saw the boy standing erect with his hands tightly clenched and a deep scowl on his face. "I'm nothing like you…" He growled at the man before him. He had never thought of Arashi as an obstacle he needed to surpass in order for his dreams to come true. He had always seen it as them fighting towards the same dream, fighting together. In his mind, Naruto had never seen any outcome other than them both achieving what they sought for. But just hearing Oki speak on his past, even if it was only for an instant, he did see a connection between them. As much as he hated the thought of it, he could sense truth in what he was saying, sooner or later someone would have to come out on top.

He's had this feeling before, resentment, he felt it earlier in the mission when Hinata was clinging to Arashi as they traveled. They were so happy together, and there Naruto was, alone and without Sasame. But he knew that Arashi had feelings of the same nature, his glare was hard not to notice whenever the fact that Naruto mastered the Rasengan first came up. But in that one second where Oki's words slipped into the core of Naruto's mind, he came to the single question that this way of thinking brought up the loudest. 'What will I do if Arashi is chosen as Hokage instead of me, and what of the reverse situation…what becomes of us?'

Oki, just grinned as he watched the inner turmoil plastered on Naruto's face. He knew that it would have hit home with him. But he did not like the feel of the atmosphere around them, he didn't like the look in Naruto's eyes, the anger he saw there; or the feel of the chakra now swirling around the blond youth.

Suddenly Oki felt the dispersed chakra condense back in Naruto, looking at him he saw a look of determination on his enemies face along with him standing in an offensive stance. "I'm nothing like you…" He repeated again, but with much more conviction in his voice than previously. "There is no way I could ever think of my friends in such a lowly way, we're comrades, friends, brothers…and we always will be!"

Oki's face instantly contracted into a scowl, he hadn't made the reaction he had sought for. Throwing his right arm backwards with his fist still clenched, Naruto focused his chakra around his arm to quickly form a spinning vortex of wind around it. Thrusting his hand forward he opened his fist into an open palm pointing at Oki, effectively launching the wind that had collected around his arm at the Kumo Nin. "Fuuton! Teikaitsu Shotto"

The blast moved far quicker than Oki had foreseen, he had only had enough time to pull his arms defensively in front of his body. The force of the wind tried to throw him backwards, but in a show of strength he struggled against the attack, holding his ground as best he could. Still slamming against him, the jutsu was slowly pushing him backwards, leaving two streaks in the ground from where Oki's feet were trying to dig themselves in while they were pushed backwards. "ARRRRRGGH!" Oki screamed as he pushed with all his strength against the offending wall of chakra infused wind being blown at him, in one final push he shoved upwards and released himself from the pressure being put on his body. Following the path made by his push, the wind blasted upwards into the sky before finally fizzling out high above them.

"You piece of…" Oki began to spit out at Naruto before he was met face to face with Naruto's incoming foot. Moving quickly, Oki leaned back until his hands made contact with the ground under him, falling backwards he jumped with his hand backwards, Naruto's spinning kick catching nothing but air.

Springing back Oki thrust two kunai towards Naruto. But once again Naruto easily dodged them, leaving the two knives to stay plunged into the ground on either side of him. But then he noticed Oki's grin as he landed from his back hand spring evasion. "Wrong move!"

Naruto was suddenly thrown up into the air by a heavy explosion from directly underneath him, just like the last time. "What the hell?" He managed to groan out as he fell back to earth, landing in a heap of orange and blue on the ground. 'Was that another hidden paper bomb?'

"You Konoha Shinobi really are the runts of our world…" Oki laughed as he looked at Naruto's shaky attempt to return to his feet. "This has gone on long enough, you're getting on my nerves!"

Throwing out another set of kunai at Naruto, they were once again wide. Seeing this Naruto jumped backwards, feeling there was something fishy going on with how his opponent was fighting. Just as the kunai struck the ground on either side of where he had just been, the ground erupted in a violent explosion once more.

But he didn't have time to ponder just what that meant, he had to doge again the incoming pair of kunai and the resulting explosion of their impact on the ground.

Oki was laughing loudly as he thrust out kunai after kunai, the blades instantly and automatically reeling themselves in after setting of the blast, restocking themselves so that Oki could throw them out for his attacks once more Naruto had no choice but to go into full evasion mode, what ever was going on he knew that he had to avoid getting between the incoming kunai, he needed to avoid them completely. 'It looks like he's figured out what I can do, at least a little bit.' Oki thought with a grin as he threw out more kunai at Naruto. 'I don't think he's figured out exactly what my Kanden attack does. He may think that I'm setting off paper bombs under him, not what I'm really doing. When my kunai hit the ground I sent my chakra down the wires as an electrical current, that current goes into the ground and meets in between the two kunai, creating a huge electrical explosion. As long as I can pin him down between two kunai I can fry him…'

Zipping to the left, then the right, flipping backwards just as he was showered with chucks of rock after an explosion went off. Naruto was speeding around, his eyes fixated on Oki's hands as he threw the kunai, figuring out where they were aimed almost instantly. In the midst of this he began to fire off kunai of his own, knocking some of the incoming attacks down, while others were aimed at Oki, who simply side-stepped to avoid these minuscule attacks.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Now there were suddenly seven versions of Naruto dashing around before Oki. Things were starting to get more interesting as Oki was showered with the incoming attacks of the clones. But no matter, he grinned as he caught two of them in one explosion, resulting in the familiar sound of their dispersion. But four more clones were created in their place.

"This could get bothersome…" He stated as he watched the speed of al of the Narutos increase even more. 'This kid's fast, faster than I thought. I need to ground him or he'll start rushing forward for physical attacks instead of just dodging.' Her thought, but just as he did he heard the odd sound of rushing chakra, turning around he noticed that two of the Kage Bunshin were doing something together. Looking closely Oki saw a small orb of spinning chakra start to take form in one of their hands while the other seemed to be pushing air on is extremely fast. It didn't take but a second for Oki to realize that nothing good could come out of this, he needed to get rid of these Kage Bunshin, especially the two forming that spiraling ball.

Leaning forward, Oki dipped his head so that he was now squatting with his hands on the ground, and his box parallel to the ground. "Launch!" With a spike of chakra, all of the kunai stored in his box fired in all directions, instantly almost all of the clones were killed off, pierced by the incoming blades.

The original Naruto had jumped back to avoid the attack, and had succeeded in doing so. His clones were gone now, and he had been slowed down. He watched as Oki looked up to stare him down eye to eye with a grin on his face. "Time to end this!" He uttered just loud enough for Naruto to hear.

"I agree." He said with a grin. Oki was confused, why was he grinning the way he was. Watching Naruto further, he saw him casually point downwards, a signal for Oki to look under him. With a confused look in his eye he looked down, only to see some of the kunai Naruto had thrown, laying under him.

"What's he getting at…" He quietly said, right before he heard the pop of something disengaging a Henge, his face was suddenly met with the rising fist of a Naruto that had appeared out of no where. Slamming into his jaw, the strong uppercut sent Oki soaring backwards and skidding across the rocky ground.

Getting up as fast as he could he looked in shock at the Kage Bunshin standing proudly where he had just been launched from. "You really think that I would miss all those times? What kind of Shinobi do you take me for?" Naruto laughed as he raised a kunai and flung it directly at Oki. Then in an instant his cheek was lit up with pain, putting his hand to his face he could feel the blood oozing out of the fresh slice of a kunai.

"Bastard! So then all those kunai were Kage Bunshin!" Hearing another pop, he rolled to the side, to avoid another Bunshin that appeared right below him. 'Shit, these things are every where. How is this kid so good? How does he have the chakra to keep these things under Henge and at that number? I've seriously underestimated this guy…' Backing up, Oki made sure that there were now no stray kunai near him; after the burst of attacks he had shot off he now was standing still and catching his breath along with planning out what next to do. But looking into Naruto's eyes, the chunin didn't like what he saw. There was a distant look in them, like Naruto was thinking deeply, but that wasn't the biggest thing that bothered him, it was the fact that his eyes were slowly turning blood red and his pupils were stretching into vertical slits.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Naruto groaned when he felt the cold sting of the murky water that he was now forced to walk through. "Of all the times!" He grumbled in frustration. Taking another turn down the hallway of dripping pipes he came to the expansive room hidden within the dark and dank passageways of his mind. With an annoyed look he stood with his hands resting at his waist before the gigantic cage that held his prisoner.

"**So you came after all**." He heard rumble out from within the shadowy cell.

"Well I can't really help it, I don't know how to get outta here on my own! I'm kinda busy at the moment, unless you haven't noticed!" The boy spat back at the most powerful Bijju like he was speaking to a misbehaving child.

"**Now now kit, no matter how long we chat in here it'll only be perhaps a few seconds in the outside world**." Kyuubi reassured Naruto.

"Yeah, but still. You shouldn't bother me when I'm busy like that, how would you like it if I came barging in if you were in the middle of something important?

"**Well I don't have that luxury kit, unfortunately there is nothing to do in here other than observe what you are doing."** The fox said almost with a laugh, at least that's what it sounded like. But back in the shadows where Naruto couldn't see, the fox was glaring as hard as it could at her jailor.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that. I'd give you some games if I knew how to make some stuff in here." He laughed back, even though he had heard stories about the Kyuubi and what it had done, he never really thought they must be true. Especially after having contact with his 'room mate', they never fit with how he knew the Kyuubi was. The stories always depicted her as the vilest and most evil beast in existence, something that kills out of boredom, destroys whole villages for fun, and wipes entire countries off the map just because she didn't like its name. But he knew that was wrong, ever since he the academy when she helped him pass the graduation test, she has willingly helped him out in any situation. Whenever he asked, she would lend him the chakra he needed to give him that extra push to victory.

She was a nurturing fox that referred to him as Kit. How could something like that be evil, she cared for Naruto, even if initially it was because she is linked to him. But Naruto liked to think that he had grown on her after all this time together.

"So why did you pull me in here Kyuubi?"

He then heard the sound of the great fox moving close to the sealed gate, now he was looking the Bijju straight in the eyes, seeing the massive form of her. "**That's quite simple, I want to help you out in this fight…explain a few things that you can't figure out, and give you some power to end this bout quickly so that you can go off to assist your friends**." She said in a very matter of fact manner.

Naruto just stood there with a pondering look smeared across his face, what could he had not figured out? He didn't really think he needed to collect on the fox's rent and get some chakra, he got the feeling he had his fight with Oki pretty much under control. "So what don't I get?" He then asked, figuring that whatever it was it would probably help him out.

"**It's those explosions, you think that he's setting off paper bombs don't you?**" When responded to by a nod of the blond boy's head, the Kyuubi simply rolled her eyes at the boy's denseness. "**There actually aren't paper bombs under you; he's using those wires to send his chakra down the kunai and into the ground. Smashing it together under you and creating an explosion almost instantly, its because you're in between the two kunai that you get caught in the blast.**"

Standing there with his hand rubbing his chin, Naruto thought on the explanation given. Finally he flashed the fox one of his wide grins and started to laugh. "I guess that makes sense, hehehe, I mean how would he have planted paper bombs precisely where I was going to be standing beforehand?"

"**Now then, come closer and I can give you more than enough power to end this immediately.**" The fox replied in an excited tone that Naruto had never heard come from the fox before. Walking closer, Naruto began to get the feeling that nothing good would come of this with each step through the cold water. "**That's it, you want power? I can give it to you…**" The fox almost laughed, the sweet nurturing voice that Naruto had always heard from the fox slowly began to deepen and become more ominous. Now just a few feet away from the gate separating the two of them, Naruto was all of a sudden getting a feeling in his stomach that this was a very bad idea, he had never been this close before and something was screaming inside his head to back away.

"**I can give you unlimited power, enough to topple the Hokage, enough to rule Konoha with an iron fist…all you need to do is step through these gates and accept it…**" A wide fang filled grin sweeping across the fox's face.

"I…I don't think this is a good idea, I can beat this guy…I…I don't need your help." Naruto stammered out, there was something about the situation that was just not right. Shakily he took a step backwards that was responded to by a huge echoing roar with the fox.

Jumping backwards, Naruto just barely missed the claws of the fox as the slammed down right where he had been. "**RAAAAGHH!**" The fox roared, the caring feminine voice that Naruto had always heard had suddenly changed to a deep, gruff, and malice filled one, distinctly masculine. "**13 YEARS! 13 GOD FORSAKEN YEARS! I've kept up that facade of caring for you, nurturing you, and all for what?**" Kyuubi roared to itself. "**I had earned your trust, you went along with everything I said without a moment's hesitation, everything should have gone to plan.**"

Falling backward into the water, Naruto looked wide eyed at the Kyuubi. "W-what…I don't understand…"

"**Of course you don't, you never do!**" Kyuubi sneered at the boy, his claws pressed up against the cage wall. "**Did you really think a creature like me, something that with the swipe of my tail can topple mountains and create typhoons, would be a caring woman? No, but I'm smart enough to do what it takes, I had gained your trust all I needed was for you to come within the cage and I could use you how I saw fit.**" He roared at the boy, his long laid plans had all been for nothing now, all those years of posing as a female and actually giving a rat's ass about the boy. Pretending to care, when all he really wanted to do was squash the boy between his mighty claws.

Glaring back at the fox, Naruto stood now with this fists clenched and his teeth gritted. He had been betrayed, something he had thought was there to assist him, was nothing like what he thought, it had only been there so that one day it could overtake him and rise to power again. "Bastard…" He uttered through his teeth, while his mind raced around what had happened. Was this how the world worked, was everyone only doing things to get ahead of him? What about Arashi…was he like this too? Would he betray him when the time was right so he could overtake him and solidify his power like Oki told him he would? 'No, Arashi isn't like that…' He thought half-heartedly.

"Baka Kitsune! I'll never rely on you again! I don't need your power, and I don't want it." He yelled with hate filled words.

The Fox simple began to chuckle in his deep and evil voice. "**Oh you'll need it one day, wither you want to admit it or not, you'll come seeking it out. You'll use my power if you want to or not…**" He growled ominously as his eyes glowed out at Naruto from within the shadows. Naruto then felt his vision blurring over, blinking to fix his sight he suddenly found himself looking out at Oki once more.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

He had never felt such killing intent before in all his life, nor a more frightening gaze. Oki had been terrified when those eyes began to change towards the blood red cat eyes, but all of a sudden they had turned back to the deep blue eyes that Naruto actually had. 'The only other person I've ever felt with chakra that sinister was Killerbee-sama…' Oki shuttered as he thought back to when he had meet the Raikage's brother.

But now the fear had passed, and all that was before him was his target. Shaking his head he focused back in on what he needed to do. "I don't know what you are kid, but you end here!"

Naruto had brought himself back into the fight as well, disregarding all of the thoughts concerning what had just happened, he knew that he needed to finish soon. He needed to get back to Hinata and finish this mission, not to mention get back with Arashi, he still hadn't forgotten about the plume of fire that had come from where he was fighting earlier. Pulling out a pair of his own kunai he held them in each hand, his gaze fixating on Oki.

Just as Naruto was about to make his move, he stopped his movement when he saw Oki leap backwards. Landing on the water's surface of the river behind him, Oki bean to flash through hand signs. "Suiton: Ouitsunami" With a burst of chakra, a large wave rose out of the water and rushed over the shore as well as Naruto, submerging him under its rushing water as it flowed over the landscape. Running out of water, the attack retreated back to the river, leaving the rocky ground covered in water and Naruto now fully soaked to the bone.

Getting back up to his feet, Naruto felt the sloshing that came from taking a step in any direction in the now drenched terrain. But looking up he quickly put two and two together when he saw Oki smirking as he held onto just one kunai instead of two. Naruto then leapt high into the air just as Oki flung his electrified kunai into the conductive water.

"You're smarter than I thought!" Oki laughed as he saw the ground light up when his electricity sparked and crackled across the water ridden ground.

Naruto waited until the crackling had subsided to make his move, and the moment it did he formed his familiar cross shaped hand sign. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" A clone appearing behind him grabbed the boy and whirling in the air, flung his directly as their common enemy.

'Fool…' Oki thought as he watched the blond ninja rocket towards him. Falling backwards, he narrowly avoided a slash from Naruto's kunai aimed at his neck. Landing with his back on the ground, Oki caught Naruto using his legs, then relying on the leg strength attained after years of taijutsu training specializing on his legs; he flung Naruto back up into the air.

Rolling to get back to his feet, Oki flung a pair of kunai upwards, so that either blade soared past Naruto. Bringing his hands up he formed a hand sign just as the wires were on either side of Naruto, a large sadistic grin plastered on his face as he watched Naruto about to use a Kage Bunshin again to escape. "KANDEN!" He yelled as blue electric chakra shot down the wires, searching for the closest thing to arc into, it quickly found the unprotected Naruto.

"GAAAAH!" Naruto screamed as his whole body was lit up by the electric attack. Crashing back to the ground he could smell the odor of singed flesh and cloth. He hadn't expected that, for him to re-launch his attack when he was in between the returning wires. 'What do I do? I could try that out…I haven't gotten it perfectly yet thought. It very well might just blow up in my face if I try it out…its risky but I need to try it. Judging by my chakra now, I should have enough to pull it off and then maybe two attempts at Rasengan…' Naruto thought, running what to do through his head. 'But first I need the time to get it done.'

"How'd you like that? Quite a shocking experience, eh?"

"S-Shut up, it's about time I put an end to this…I have friends to go help." Naruto responded shakily as he rose to his feet, gripping his kunai tightly in each hand. Groaning as his joints screamed in rebellion to what his brain was telling them to do.

"How sad, the fool thinks he can stand on my stage! Oki the Great will end you right now! I'm the man who's kunai will pierce the heavens, the Big me can't be stopped by someone as small as you!" He laughed to himself. Reaching behind him, he pulled out another pair of kunai, already sparking from the chakra already running through them. "Now you DIE!"

Thrusting them forward, Naruto stood his ground. If what he planned worked, then he would have time to pull off his attack, if not he'd probably be blasted up and over the cliff he had fallen from. Watching the kunai closely as the sped towards him, he suddenly threw his own kunai directly down just as Oki's hit on either side of him. But there was no explosion resulting from the attack. "WHAT?" Oki exclaimed as he looked at what had happened. On either side, Naruto had thrown his kunai down right next to his own, resulting in the electricity flowing into them instead of smashing together to create the explosion.

His attack had been countered, and with the sound of a Henge being preformed, Oki then saw the Fuuma Shuriken launch from Naruto's hand aimed directly at him. "Oh no, not this time!" He laughed, leaping high in the air, he planned now on killing Naruto now, ending this fight with his finishing attack. "I said that now you die! And I wasn't lying…now it truly is time for you to die!"

Spinning in the air, and focusing all his chakra into the blades in his box, he shot all of the kunai at the same time, aiming to surround Naruto on all sides with his wired kunai. The explosion would be so great that it would vaporize the blond boy, it was a move that couldn't be stopped, and couldn't be avoided, Naruto was too close to dodge and didn't even look like he was going to move. "Raiton: Dai-Kanden!"

But looking downwards as his kunai streaked towards him, Oki was confused at the smirk appearing on Naruto's face. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" In an instant a clone appeared next to Naruto, holding out its hands it began to shuffle them around the growing orb of chakra that resting in the original's hand. It was the same thing that Oki had seen some clones attempting earlier. But from the degree that Naruto was panting it seemed like this was the last thing he was able to do at the moment. The crackling kunai were getting closer and closer, but before they did Oki watched as a shining shell seemed to be formed around the spiraling blue ball of chakra, the Kage Bunshin disappearing upon its completion.

"You got one thing wrong…" Naruto grinned as he looked upwards at Oki and the cliffside behind him. "It's you that dies here…NOW!" He seemed to call out, but not to Oki. In a flash, Oki heard the appearance of something behind him, looking there; he saw that the Shuriken thrown at him was, like the others, a Kage Bunshin in Henge. It had dropped the transformation and had jumped so that it was now directly behind the Kumo Nin. "Now witness my newest jutsu!" Naruto yelled as he prepared to attack himself. "Kage Bunshin…Bakuhatsu!" In an instant the clone suddenly exploded violently, several times more violent than the explosions from Oki's Kanden.

Being that close to the sudden blast, Oki was immediately shot downwards like he was being blown out of a canon, shooting directly at the waiting Naruto. "NOOOOO!" He screamed as he shot past his now useless kunai.

"This is the end!" Naruto yelled as he leapt forward to collide with the incoming Oki. "RASENGAN!" The ultimate attack slammed into Oki's chest as they smashed into each other.

"GUUURAAAAAHHH!" Oki bellowed in pain as the chakra began to drill into his chest before rocketing him backwards. 'BOOOOOM!' The ground shook as Oki slammed into the cliffside behind him, puncturing several feet into the hard rock, ending his life in the process. The only proof he was there were the dozens of wired kunai, hanging limply out of the hole drilled into the rock.

Falling to his knees, Naruto began to suck in air as hard as he could. Even him and his incredible amount of chakra was near the breaking point. If that hadn't worked he would have only been able to try a Rasengan maybe one more time. What had drained him so much was his new type of Kage Bunshin. To make the Kage Bunshin Bakuhatsu, it was like squishing 700 or so clones into one body. The point was to put so much chakra into it that it would become unstable, barely being able to function because of the massive amount of stored chakra inside it. It had become even more of a drain on Naruto because he was forced to keep it under a Henge for a long period of time. But once he let go of trying to keep the clone stable, it became basically a living bomb. It's not a jutsu that he could do often, but it was necessary for ending his battle with Oki.

"Naruto!" He suddenly heard echo down to him from up above.

Looking up, he instantly began to grin widely when he saw Hayate looking over the edge of the cliff at him. "Oi! Hayate-sensei!" Looking closely, he could see an unconscious Arashi slung over the Jonin's shoulder, something that caused Naruto to frown deeply, he didn't want to see his friend hurt.

"Can you get up here? Or do I need to come get you?" Hayate called down again, he had only got there, finally finding Naruto's location from the shakes in the ground resulting from him finishing Oki off.

"Yeah, I think I can get up there. Give me a minute!" He yelled back up to him. Going over to the cliff, he began to slowly and painfully walk up the side of it.

After a few minutes, Naruto jumped up and landed at the top of the cliff. "Well, you've seen better days, I can tell you that." Hayate told the boy after seeing the electric burns, bruise, and cuts on him as well as the shabby state of his clothing.

"I could say the same for you." Naruto remarked when he saw Hayate's arm and his now blood soaked sleeve. Leaning to the side to look at Arashi, his face was swept over with a look of concern. "Is he going to be okay? What happened to him? His arm looks really bad…" Naruto began to spout out frantically.

"He'll *cough* be okay, he got that when he lost to that woman. He's lucky I got there when I did, or else he's be dead."

"W-What? Arashi…lost?"

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**Finally! Done! I'm glad to have gotten this done, the layout of what happened actually changed a lot from my original plans for this chapter. I guess my thinking as changes since I began this chapter! Anyway, I really appreciate everyone who's read this, I know its been like 6 months since I uploaded an actual chapter, and I feel bad about that. So I hope you all look forward to the next one.**

**Naruto wins his fight and learns that Arashi didn't! How will he react to that? Also, Hinata meets with leader of the enemy faction face to face, what will come out of it and how will Getsurei feel about seeing his little brother again? Find out next time!**

**Jutsu Translation:**

Fuuton: Kazekasui – Fuuton: Wind Streak

Fuuton : Teikaitsu Shotto - Fuuton: Cyclone Shot

Suiton: Ouitsunami - Suiton : Overflowing Wave

Raiton: Kanden - Receiving an electric shock

Raiton: Dai-Kanden - Receiving a huge electric shock

Kage Bunshin Bakuhatsu – Shadow Clone Explosion


	37. Aside

**Disclaimer**: I do NOT own Naruto; just Arashi and any other OCs.

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_(Previously)_

_After a few minutes, Naruto jumped up and landed at the top of the cliff. "Well, you've seen better days, I can tell you that." Hayate told the boy after seeing the electric burns, bruise, and cuts on him as well as the shabby state of his clothing._

"_I could say the same for you." Naruto remarked when he saw Hayate's arm and his now blood soaked sleeve. Leaning to the side to look at Arashi, his face was swept over with a look of concern. "Is he going to be okay? What happened to him? His arm looks really bad…" Naruto began to spout out frantically._

"_He'll *cough* be okay, he got that when he lost to that woman. He's lucky I got there when I did, or else he'd be dead."_

"_W-What? Arashi…lost?"_

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"What do you mean he lost?"

Hayate paused to cough for a few seconds before responding to the boy. "How else can I put it," he stated plainly. "From what it looked like when I arrived, he and that woman had just given it all they had in a final attack…Arashi did damage to her and she to him. She just caused more."

It was in that second that Naruto realized what had just happened. Slowly turning around, his eyes widening, Naruto peered over the cliff face to where he could still see the many wired kunai hanging limply from the crevasse that Oki had been drilled into.

Before he could say or do anything, he felt a hand fall lightly on his shoulder. With a small amount of force Naruto was turned around by the hand so that he was now looking face to face with the Jonin. Placing his other hand on Naruto's other shoulder Hayate leaned down to his level. "Same goes for you, you just did more damage."

"But…" Naruto sputtered, his eyes snapped wide as his mind wrestled with the fact that he had just killed someone.

"No buts, you are a ninja. A Shinobi of Konoha and a fine one, this type of thing comes with the territory. You took out someone who was in the way of the mission; you followed your duty and did the right thing." Sighing deeply Hayate then became sterner. "As much as I don't like those Shinobi rules that they teach in the academy, they do serve a purpose. "A ninja mustn't show his emotions in any situation" "A ninja must prioritize his mission first and must not show any tears." Abiding by those rules is tough for anyone, even more so for people like you and me."

"What do you…?"

"This isn't the time or the place for you to be thinking this over; you killed an enemy combatant in the line of duty. You should put it behind you and not bother with the thought…but we aren't like that. We are people who care and people who love, the loss of a life at our hands is tough the first time." Letting go of the boy, Hayate stood and looked skywards. "I know it tore me up, I had my first kill when I was 9 years old. Only 9 and I had to watch the life drain from a man's eyes as my sword was shoved through his body. It shook me up, it shook me up bad."

Fully engulfed with what was being said Naruto pressed him for more. "What did you do?"

"I let it affect me; I let it absorb my train of thought during our mission. I should have not succumbed to that because of what happened. It had happened during a retrieval mission of a prisoner, the guy's friends came to rescue him and we acted. But because I was too focused on what I had just done, I missed something important and almost got Shizune-chan killed. A second guy came from behind and took her out with an iron club to the back of the head…she went down like a sack of potatoes. The guy hit the ground almost as soon as she did; only he was missing a head. Sensei had thought I would have seen the guy, but when she saw I didn't, she acted instantly…just not in time.

Hayate looked further skywards and let out a small chuckle. "It would turn out that because Shizune-chan was hospitalized she met Tsunade-sama and forever changed her life." Turning to Naruto, his eyes narrowed in a hard glare. "So put this behind you or save it for later! There is still one of our team we need to meet up with, there is still the mission to finish! How can we help Hinata if you're consumed with other thoughts?"

Grabbing Arashi, the Jonin hoisted him back up to his shoulder. "Now move out!"

"H-Hai!" Leaping forward the two ninja began to dash through the forest, moving along the route that Hinata would have taken Getsurei. As they moved, Naruto could help but take a closer look at Arashi. "What happened to his hair?"

Hayate only smirked at the boy. 'I'm glad he followed my advice, I don't want to see someone else go into the hospital because of a team mate's neglect.' "It would seem that his opponent was a fire user and he got some hair burned down. I don't know, with a little fixing it'll look fine. It might even look better, after all I don't really like thinking about Kakashi every time I see his hair."

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"Kaiten!" A spinning whirl of chakra encircled the person who used it, effectively throwing off the dozen shuriken that would have otherwise torn into them. After a couple moments the chakra blew away and the figure inside the sphere of chakra began to slow their rotation. Finally coming to a stop they let out a strained exhale of breath and then lowered back into her Jyuken stance.

"Very well done Hanabi-sama." Neji said as he walked forward toward the girl with a towel in his hand. "Wipe yourself off; we've been at this for quite a while."

"Arigato Neji-nii-san." She said as she stretched her neck from side to side. Moving to the side of her training area that sat in the middle of the Hyuuga compound she sat down and let out a frustrated sigh.

"She has certainly progressed quickly." Neji said quietly under his breath as he walked and sat down next to his uncle as he watched over his youngest daughter's training from the open air walkway that surrounded the training ground. "Ever since her defeat at Hinata-sama's hands she has devoted herself to perfecting anything set in front of her…it's starting to become annoying." He stoically said to Hiashi.

"I'm sure that you do not mean that tutoring her has become annoying Neji, unless you'd like for me to reassign you to cleaning detail." Hiashi remarked with a wry grin on his face.

"Of course not Hiashi-sama. I merely meant that her attitude has begun to rub me the wrong way. She demands that anything and everything available is given to her to make her better, yet not once has she expressed gratitude for the assistance." He stated with a slight twitch in his eyebrow. "Her training is nothing like when I helped out Hinata-sama…"

"Well they are different people; Hinata has a gentle and warming aura about her. She brings out the best in people just from seeing her smile. I hate to say it, but Hanabi is more like you Neji. She has a deep desire to surpass people and show herself to be strong, regardless of whom she has to trample to do it."

"Perhaps you mean how I was before my loss at Naruto-san's hands."

Hiashi chuckled lightly at the correction. "No, you still act that way a bit, not as much as before and you do it with a different motivation. Your hate for the Main Family was your motivation to be the best, but now it is to better yourself and perhaps fight Uzumaki-san again." Turning to Neji his stern face warmed slightly as he looked at him. "That boy has really made you a better person Neji, someone I am proud to call my nephew."

"Thank you uncle…he has changed me for the better. But I'm afraid that Arashi-san is what is behind Hanabi's constant abrasive attitude."

"Someone wouldn't need the Byakugan to see that Neji, she has grown up hearing praise of him from Hinata's mouth and their constant head butting when he visits does not help the situation. She sees him as the ultimate obstacle of strength, as well as someone who is usurping her rights. You've seen and heard the difference on conversations pertaining to him since she found out about Hinata's betrothal. In her mind he is taking her sister away and has been for years, she also sees that it is only because of him that she is being given the opportunity to become the Clan Head. For that reason she resents him, she wrongly thinks that it is because Hinata cannot take the roll that it is merely being passed off to her."

Neji groaned at the memory of their last conversation concerning Arashi. In the span of about two minutes she had gone from mild agitation all the way storming out of the room. "I just hope that she will lighten up once Arashi-san and Hinata-sama return from their mission."

"I fear that having him around will only increase her attitude, you saw how humiliated she was when she lost to Hinata." Looking out at the young girl he could only smirk as he watched her gather her things and turn towards them. "Ah, I've been meaning to ask you something Neji." He said as he motioned for Neji to take a sip of the tea that had been prepared for them.

"And that would be what Hiashi-sama?"

"I was wanting to know just your team mate TenTen has been around the compound so much when your team is off duty." Neji instantly spewed tea from his mouth, caught completely off guard by his question.

Blushing and poking his index fingers together he attempted to respond. "W-Well you see..."

Hiashi just laughed at how much he and Hinata were similar; there was no doubt that they weren't related. "Next time I would like to be formally introduced." He said in passing as he rose to greet his daughter. "You are doing quite well Hanabi; there is no doubt in my mind that you'll make a fine Clan Head one day."

"Indeed Otou-sama, I plan to run our family with dignity and honor." Tossing her towel to Neji she then turned back to her father, ignoring the Neji as he sighed in agitation. "If you'll excuse me Otou-sama I have a couple things to pick up at the market."

"But of course Hanabi, I expect you to be back for dinner as always." Stepping aside he motioned his arm in the direction of her room.

Soon the young Hyuuga was freshened up, changed, and out the gates of the compound. She had intentionally not taken any escort with her so that she wouldn't have the thought of looking bad in the eyes of the clan as she vented all of the thoughts that had been bothering her during her training. 'Damn Arashi-san…' She kept saying over and over in her head.

Grumbling down the street she passed the shop she intended to visit as she was too focused on thinking, the girl planned to hit it up when she decided that it was time to head back to the compound. 'My Kaiten isn't good enough; I can only hold it for a few moments. No good! No good! Nee-chan is much more proficient at it; her's was also a lot bigger when we fought.' Hanabi's face twisted into a deep frown at her inability to replicate her sister's success at the jutsu as she clenched her fists.

Looking around her at the crowds on the streets of Konoha, Hanabi groaned in irritation. Turning into the nearest alley, she quickly leapt skywards and onto Konoha's Shinobi streets, i.e. the rooftops. The small Hyuuga had always preferred to take to the rooftops ever since she became capable of doing so, the streets were always so full of people that the jumble of voices and bodies made any trip through the village a bothersome endeavor. Something that didn't sit well with the girl, she wanted to get where she was going as fast as she could and not waste time on trivial travel, but this clashed with her father's idea of presenting the clan. Whenever they went somewhere it was always a slow walk through the streets. He claimed that it was to 'show the pride and prestige of the clan', but she always suspected that he just liked to make people wait on him.

Lost in thought on the small things about the village that go unnoticed most times, Hanabi had hardly even realized it when she landed on top of the academy. It was an off day for the academy so no one was there, the perfect situation for Hanabi to mull things over in her mind. Atop the building she could look out to see almost the entire village, with the Hokage Tower and monument behind her she could put the pressure of expectations out of her mind and focus on any issues she had to deal with, and at the moment that issue was Arashi.

"How could I mess with him so that he wouldn't be a thorn in my side anymore?" She asked to herself, thinking out loud due to the lack of people in her vicinity. "He's only around because of Nee-chan, the most effective way would be to split them up…but they're betrothed now and if I do anything to try and mess it up Father will not be pleased and it will bring the clan into it."

Tapping her finger on her chin, her mind churning at high speed to try to come up with something that with firstly make her a thorn in Arashi's side and not the other way around, and secondly to not come to the attention of the clan and ruin her path to Clan Head. "Ah ha!" She exclaimed as her eyes popped wide in realization of an idea. "I could give that Inuzuka guy who has the hots for Nee-chan information and help in wooing her…" Letting out a soft laugh she ran with the idea. "If he is given the right ways to do it, he might be able to shake the bond between Nee-chan and Arashi-teme."

"No, that's a bad idea," she sighed. She didn't want to hurt her sister, she it was beyond obvious that she loved the Himura and helping out Kiba would only hurt her. That was something she didn't want, she only wanted to mess with Arashi, not her sister. That and the thought of Hinata and Kiba together was an unsettling thought to the young Hyuuga.

With that idea shot down, she was befuddled as to what out of the way thing she could do to the Himura. "Well…I don't think I can get anyone to help me, that would just bring things to the attention of Otou-sama."

Drumming her fingers on her leg as she looked out of the village, she was waiting for something to pop into her mind. Scanning the surrounding area, her eyes landed on the apartment complex that Arashi lived in. "Now that's a possibility."

Pulling her hands together she placed them under her chin. 'There is Naruto; I could use him to mess with Arashi.' Almost everyone in Konoha knew how close the two of them were, and Hanabi was in the know as well. 'If I could get him to take interest in me that would really get to Arashi, I could have his 'brother' wrapped around my finger and he could do nothing about it!' She thought with a slight reddish warmth rising to her cheeks.

Shaking her head she tried to put the idea down, it just wasn't something that would work. 'That's not something that would be good for a short term humiliation for Arashi. That and I don't think that it would work very well, there is too much of an age difference between us and if I remember correctly he already has a girlfriend." With an exacerbated sigh she flopped back to look skywards, a grin slowly spreading across her face along the deepening blush. "But that idea might come in handy in the future, I'll keep it in mind." Closing her eyes, she didn't notice the noise of someone dropping down on the rooftop near her.

"You'll keep what in mind?"

Snapping her head around, she was met face to face with Sandaime's grandson, Konohamaru. "Konohamaru-kun! What are you doing here," she proclaimed.

Throwing the ends of his oversized scarf over his shoulder, he plopped down beside the Hyuuga girl. "I was coming over here to see if Iruka-sensei was around to give mea few pointers on some things, then I saw you over here and figured I'd come see what was up," he beamed at the girl with a large foxy grin. "So what'll you keep in mind Hanabi-chan?"

"O-Oh, it's n-nothing, just that there r-really is a great view from up h-here." Cursing herself internally for stuttering like her sister, she sat up to talk with the mini-Naruto.

"You're right about that, I always have liked it up here." A bright smile still plastered on his face, Hanabi knew that it was because it faced away from the Hokage Monument that he liked it but didn't think it right to bring that up.

"So Konohamaru-kun…w-why were you looking for Iruka-sensei?"

"Just some extra help in survival techniques, once you become a full Ninja you'll never know just what is needed for a mission so I want to know as much as I can so I'm prepared."

"But wouldn't it be better to wait for when those things come up in the academy?" Hanabi asked, survival training wasn't supposed to be covered for a couple more months so she figured that Konohamaru was just trying to get a head start.

"Normally that would work best, but Iruka-sensei said that I've already gotten all of the things we're supposed to know before that. He told me to come and get him whenever I felt like having an 'Advanced Lesson', last week we worked on paper bombs again."

"Wow, you're pretty far ahead of the class. I am too, I've already learned all the stuff n the academy from Otou-sama, but I need to go through the academy to get into a team and all." Hanabi said with a tinge of red in her cheeks, her hoping to impress Konohamaru with her progress seemed to work as his eyes lit up for some reason.

"That's great! I thought I was the only person who was done with what we need to know! Between Iruka-sensei and Naruto-niichan I've been taught everything so far, I was just going to Iruka-sensei to get more advanced techniques."

"W-Wha..." She spewed out in confusion.

Rubbing the back of his neck out of habit, he stood up as he responded. "Yeah, Iruka-sensei said that having me around was like having a second Naruto in his class and he wasn't going to have the same result again. He went a little overboard and Hokage-sama got a little angry at him for supposed favoritism."

Dusting off his pants he then reached down and offered Hanabi a hand up. Taking it she was brought to her feet. "Listen, I've got to go find Sensei…but…if you'd want to, we could go spar sometime. If you weren't busy that is!" He stammered out in a rush. All Hanabi could get out was a nod to the boy before he dashed off to find his scarred Sensei.

Following suit, Hanabi eventually found herself back on the streets of Konoha. But she still hadn't come up with a solution to her Arashi problem. "Forget it, I'll just Juuken him in the kidneys the next time I see him." She said with a laugh as she headed back to the compound, completely forgetting whatever she had originally left to get.

"Baika no Jutsu!" The shout echoed through the area as two massive forms collided with each other, hands clasped in a struggle to overpower the other. "OREEAA!" With a final push of might and twist of his expanded body, one of the forms spun with the other still in its grasp and slammed him to the ground.

Standing over the fallen body, the victorious one cancelled his jutsu and slowly shrank back to his normal large size. "That was really good, but you've got a long way to go until you'll e able to overpower me, son!" Chouza laughed loudly as he helped Chouji to his feet.

"I thought I had you that time." The boy responded while brushing off the dirt he was now covered in. The grounds behind the Akimichi house over time had become very dusty and lacking in grass due to the constant training and battling going on over it.

"There are other things you must keep in mind other than just straightforward power. Flexibility and explosive acceleration are both factors that are essential to using an expansion to its fullest." Sitting down as the bench that say at the edge of their training grounds, Chouza pulled open a bag of his favorite chips and began shoveling them into his mouth.

Grimacing slightly at his father, Chouji followed his actions and joined him on the bench. But he only reached for the large cup of water he had brought out with him earlier. "But son, a plain 'ol Baika no Jutsu really is just something to either take out a lot of unskilled ninja or bandits when they are surrounding you, or to use when taking an enemy village as a massive destructive object or as an intimation technique."

"Or when used in conjunction with our different types of special taijutsu and alongside the Nara or Yamanaka jutsu." Chouji chimed in.

"Of course, it is a handy jutsu that has many applications. But when it comes to battle you'll need to use the Bubun Baika on specific areas of your body for quick and damaging blows." Setting his chips down Chouza motioned for Chouji to follow him. Walking to the end of their training area they stopped right before the forest began. "Lets see what you can do with it, you should be proficient enough in it to do some damage. Don't worry about the trees; I can get an old friend to help replace them later."

"Bubun Baika no Jutsu!" Chouji said once he had molded the right amount of chakra inside himself. "Arm!" Holding his right arm out it expanded its size many times over until it was like a boulder had replaced his fist and forearm. He pulled it back he then thrust it forward and straight through the large tree trunk before him, showering himself and his father in splinters.

Chouza's eyebrow raised I surprise at how destructive the blow was. "Other arm!" Chouji continued, his left arm following the right's example and expanded to immense size. The boy then reached out with both hands, griping the trunk of the next tree he then quickly pulled to one side and snapped the tree off from its base creating a jagged stump in its place.

"Impressive…most impressive," Chouza grinned. He hadn't thought that Chouji would do that well with that jutsu. After all he had only been taught it about a month ago. 'He might be onto something with not using calorie conversion; he's faster that before and a lot more powerful. He has more stamina than you could ever hope for with our normal way of doing things and he generally seems much happier…ell maybe that isn't because of this.' Placing a comforting hand on his son's shoulder the older man gave him a prideful smile. "You're on a path to become the best shinobi the Akimichi have ever produced, it won't be long to you're the one throwing me to the ground"

"You really think so?"

"It's only natural for you to surpass me!" Letting out a large laugh he gave Chouji a reassuring slap on the back. "I'm really proud of you son, you've pushed yourself to become better. Especially in losing the weight, it's not anything I could do!" He chuckled again at his statement. "It's nice to have someone to push yourself for isn't it?" Adding a wink at Chouji to drive the point home, he got an embarrassed but happy grin from his son in response. "So how s Ino-chan doing lately?"

"She's great…speaking of her I forgot to tell you that I'm supposed to be meeting her and Shikamaru soon. So sorry dad, but I got to go met them wouldn't want to keep them waiting." Getting a nod from Chouza, Chouji apologized again and then leapt away and towards the house for a shower.

"Kids these days!" Chouza laughed to himself.

"Geez, where could he be? He said he would meet us here half an hour ago!" Ino complained to Shikamaru as they sat waiting for the third member of their group.

"Calm down Ino, he said he was going to be training with his dad before coming over here. Odds are that he took a shower or something, unless you' like him to stink to high heaven when he got here. You really are trouble…" Immediately he was smacked over the head by his blond teammate. "Point is proven every time you open your mouth."

"I thought I said you needed to stop calling people that!" Ino spouted at him. But she never really got through to the Nara, he just continued to ignore her and watch the clouds float by as lazily as he floated through the day.

"Just leave him be Ino-chan." Chouji said as walked up the stairway to their spot.

Seeing him, Ino jumped at him to wrap her arms around his neck and greet him with a warm kiss. Breaking the passionate kiss, he set her down and grinned widely at her. "Well I missed you too," He said.

"I can't help it, we've both been busy. You've been training with your father almost non-stop! Dad has me training too when I'm not watching the shop, I'm doing well but with Dad having so many missions I'm spending more time behind the counter instead of out on the training field." Pouting about the lack of progress she was having she followed Chouji as he sat down next to Shikamaru on the flat bench they used to lay down on to watch the clouds.

"What, am I invisible?" The Nara boy muttered to the two not sitting next to him.

"Sorry buddy, you know how it is." Chouji said with a grin. "What all have you been doing, obviously there haven't been any missions or else we would have been told."

Letting out a sigh when he looked over and saw Ino curled up at Chouji's side and his arm wrapped around her, he then turned his head back to the sky. "Tsunade-sama is having me go to Konoha Library as a Mission." Doing air quotes when he said mission. "I'm to read up on tactical strategies and Shinobi Personnel Files so that I'm capable of working with anyone on future missions"

"Really? Anything interesting?" Ino said, lazing about all day wasn't exactly her idea of a great time, but she enjoyed it from time to time, even more so if it was with Chouji.

Not taking his eyes away from the clouds overhead, he responded as best he could. "Yeah there were a lot of really interesting things that came up in a lot of the files, but I'm not at liberty to discuss them. There is a reason that you have to be of a certain rank to find out most of the information." He had been surprise with many of the things that he found out about, but it all paled in comparison to the files of Arashi and especially Naruto. 'Kyuubi no Yoko…no wonder those stupid villagers hate him so much. I can't imagine having that type of childhood and still grow up to be the great person he is. He should be honored as the hero he is, not cursed as the Fox itself.'

"Something wrong Shika?" Ino asked, seeing his blank face slowly draw into a deep scowl.

"No, I was just thinking on some stats I found out. Did you know that Chouji has the most brute force of any of our friends?"

"That's kinda obvious." She responded as she gripped his muscled arm. "Find anything else interesting that everyone else doesn't already know."

"Okay, hmmm…let's see. I found out that Sakura has a warning in her file that cautions working with her because of 'unstable temperament'." He was met with a loud laugh from Ino and muttering of victory over the large forehead girl. Shikamaru just conveniently forgot to mention that she had the same warning with an addition that it only applied when Chouji Akimichi was not present on the team.

They sat there for a while just watching the clouds float by and the birds ease through the sky. Soon enough, Ino had fallen asleep in Chouji's arms. Breathing softly she would only stir occasionally to cuddle closer to Chouji. "Hey Ino…" Shikamaru got no response. "You're the most troublesome girl I know…" Still nothing.

"She's asleep for real if that's what you're testing." Chouji responded. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I trust you Chouji, it's not like I don't trust Ino it's just that she is a gossip." Getting a chuckle back from Chouji he knew that he agreed. "I'm not going to tell you it exactly because doing so could get me the death penalty, but I just want you to know that we should respect Naruto much more than anyone we know. He's done things that have saved the lives of everyone in this village many times over."

"I know…my dad told me when we became friends with him in the academy. He wanted me to know just how special of a person he was and to be there for him." Chouji smiled at Shikamaru's shock depression, it was rare to catch the Nara of guard. "I'm guessing that it was the 'interesting' thing that you found."

Letting out a small laugh, Shikamaru laced his hands together behind his head. "It was, you know you never cease to surprise me Chouji, I'm glad we're friends. I know I always have someone to come to."

"I feel the same way." He said with a large grin.

Both boys laid there in a pleasant silence for a few moments. "So you going to marry her?"

"One day…I couldn't imagine it being anyone else." He said with a smile as he tightened his grip on Io's sleeping form.

Dashing through the woods, the Hyuuga girl was trying to move as fast as she could with the older man on her back. Sweeping her eyes left and right she suddenly leapt into the trees when she started to see signs of past activity on the ground. "Hinata! I told you that I hate being carried this way." The man said in a disapproving voice.

"We don't have time for that, or would you like for us to be found?" He quickly silenced upon realizing who they might run into.

Jumping from branch to branch was much faster than speeding along the forest floor, it as just more bouncy. Something that didn't agree with Getsurei's stomach after a few minutes of it, but quickly that became a non-issue when the branch they had just touched down on erupted in a fiery explosion as soon as they leapt from it. "Paper bombs!" Hinata gasped as the next branch was blasted to splinters behind her.

Bounding from tree to tree she barely managed to escape the string of bombs that had been set for them. Forgoing the next branch she stuck to the side of the trunk and scanned the area. Looking around she could see which branches had the explosive seals on their undersides. Leaping to one without any she quickly set Getsurei down and slid into her Juuken stance.

"Very good, Hyuuga." A voice cut through the forest sounds, a voice that made Getsurei's blood run cold. Hinata saw him before he appeared, glaring at the tree before them. Rising out of the thick branch before them, Akuhei rose like he was coming out of water, his hands in his pockets and a cold grin on his face. "It's been far to long Oniiiii-chaaaaaan…"

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**Akuhei appears before Hinata and Getsurei! What skills and abilities will be put to the test against Hinata? Tune in next time for the finale of the Lightning Daimyo Arc!**

**Once again I'm sorry this took so long, I have other more pressing things to do most of the time. But I'm not giving this up, I have many plans it's just that things have come up. Like the fact that I am getting a piece of my original work published. **

**Anyway, please review and let me know what you think. It always helps me get along and back into the writing spirit.**


	38. Finale

I have nothing to say in my excuse, it is disgusting that it has taken me this long to update my story, I am sorry.

**Disclaimer**: I do NOT own Naruto; just Arashi and any other OCs.

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Being cooped up alone in a secure hospital room was not helping out Sasuke's mood. He could have been out training to get stronger. Instead he was stuck in another hospital bed. Sure, he fully understood that he deserved to be contained here; he had seriously injured one of his comrades. Attacks against ninja of your own village were not ever looked upon any way other than poorly, no matter who it was. He could have been Tsunade's son and he would have still been shut away. The only reason he was in the hospital instead of in a secret ANBU holding cell, was the fact that he was a Genin. People as young as him can be rash in their decisions; Konoha knew this and gave them a little bit of leeway.

'I would be fine with being in here if it wasn't for the weird feeling of having no chakra!' He thought, looking over at the chakra suppressor seal that he had put on his left shoulder. He couldn't even scratch the damn thing, being held down in the bed by thick leather straps over his torso, arms and legs. And with no capability of raising his strength with chakra, he wasn't going anywhere until someone let him out. But with his visiting restrictions, the only person he could think of that could possibly be rash enough to let him out was Sakura, and she had already left after a brief visit.

He still had a bad taste in his mouth after the Hokage had been in with him earlier. The Uchiha was then pulled out of his thoughts when he heard the door unlock and slowly slide open. "Yo," said the silver haired Jonin as he popped his head into the room.

"Oh, it's just you…" Sasuke groaned, hoping that it was maybe Shino. At least with him he knew he wasn't going to get a lecture.

"You must have known I would show up. After all you did use the technique I taught you to almost cripple my good friend's student for life."

Sasuke could only hang his head in responce, with only his head capable of movement it made emoting with body movement all the more difficult for the already communication impaired boy.

"At least it looks like you regret it," Kakashi said.

"I know I shouldn't have hurt Lee like that, we got into things and it…escalated."

"I'd say! Normally spars between comrades don't end that way. I thought you would have known better Sasuke," He said with a disappointed glare from his one visible eye. "Had you or Lee been of a higher rank this situation would be much worse. I hope you know that," Seeing Sasuke nod his head, Kakashi was glad that he at least understood the seriousness of the consequences he escaped. But deciding to try and drill the point into his head even more he continued as if Sasuke didn't know. "You would have been arrested as a traitor to our village, you'd be locked up in some secret ANBU prison. I used to be ANBU, I've been down there and believe me, you don't want to be down there. They do some horrible things down there. After spending a significant amount of time in the hands of people like Anko, you would either be executed, have your memory of most of your life wiped away, or have your chakra sealed away forever and exiled far away from here. Incidents like these aren't taken lightly."

Sasuke wished he could disappear into the bed he was strapped to, he knew about the first part. Thinking that he would just get a lengthy prison sentence, he didn't think that they would go so far. But being ninjas and having the capabilities of destruction that they possessed it made sense, a village the size of Konoha needed its Shinobi to be loyal and if they weren't, they were a threat.

"I know what I did was wrong…I just lost my head in the fight. I didn't mean to hurt Lee like that. I was just trying to get stronger…" He said before trailing off.

"So you can kill Itachi." Kakashi said, finishing what Sasuke was trying to say. He understood what Sasuke was thinking, Itachi had taken people away from not just Sasuke that day. But living your life through vengeance is not how things should be done. Kakashi had hoped that Sasuke would figure that out as he grew up.

Despite everything happening around him, just hearing his brother's name was enough to cause Sasuke to glare deeply, his mind instantly going to his last encounter with his target. How he was powerless to do anything against him. The shame of being passed off in an instant for Naruto and Arashi, the trauma of having to go through his darkest day again and again, and his deep seeded hate for Itachi. Sasuke was so entrenched in his thoughts on his brother that he missed Kakashi getting up to leave, the older ninja not wanting to go through more brooding from the young Uchiha.

But as he was about to leave he turned around to say something final to Sasuke. "The Chidori is a high level assassination technique, I taught it to you to try and help you prepare for Itachi…I didn't teach it to you so you can use it on your friends. If you **ever** do it again, ANBU is going to be the least of your worries." He said with a glare accompanied with enough killing intent to make a shiver run up Sasuke's spine.

Getting a shaky nod from his one time student, Kakashi slid the door shut and re-locked it. Giving a nod to the two ANBU stationed outside the room he grinned as Anko popped up from the bench across the hall she had been waiting for him on.

"Did it go well?" She asked plainly.

"Sort of, he seemed like he regretted what he did. He understood how serious a thing it was that he did. But he is still so hung up of Itachi, just hearing his name sent him into a rage. But I seemed to have gotten through to him, I'm glad Kurenai asked me to talk to him, I don't think she could have gotten the point across without causing more conflict." He said with a groan.

"But you did great. I didn't hear any yelling so that's always good." Lacing her fingers with his they continued down the stairs in silence until they made it through the doors of the hospital and into the street. "You know, being tactful like you were and being considerate of the emotions of others is a great quality. I just know you'll be a great father!" She said with a grin.

Letting out a laugh Kakashi let go of her hand and placed her arm around his girlfriend. "I hope I can, in a long time from now I can possibly see that happening. By then I hope I'm an even better person."

Anko just smiled weakly, pressing herself up against it as they walked. Instinctually bringing her hand up to her stomach, she frowned as her mind whirled. 'How am I going to bring this up to him?'

"It's been far too long Oniiiii-chaaaaaaan!" Getsurei could only look on in horror as Akuhei now stood before him and Hinata. After realizing that it was his younger brother that was truly pulling the strings behind his whole ordeal, Getsurei had dreaded meeting him face to face. Akuhei was a ruthless killer, a powerful ninja, and the exact opposite of him in most regards.

Not wanting to be stuck in a disadvantageous position, Hinata quickly grabbed Getsurei's hand and leapt down to the forest floor. Landing, she stood in front of him in her Juuken stance, her Byakugan already blazing. Getsurei had backed up against the trunk of the tree behind him, hiding behind Hinata, the only thing between him and a painful death at the hands of his brother.

"H-How could you do this? You killed father! You're going to try and kill me!" Getsurei managed to shout out.

Akuhei had zipped down to the ground when Hinata made her move, just as before he was standing before the two with a smug grin plastered on his face. Now that they were out of the canopy of the trees it allowed Hinata to finally get a full view of him. He stood a couple inches taller than Arashi, with his dark brown hair pulled back into a long pony tail, he had two bright blue streaks of hair that stared at the sides of his forehead and arched over his ears like two bolts of lightning. His light blue eyes shown not with demented blood lust like Hinata expected them to be, but with an aura of cold calculating enthusiasm. They were clearly taking in the occasion and coming up with ways to deal with the situation. While he did look excited to have his objective in front of him, it wasn't to a degree that she could take advantage and turn it against him. But it did bother her that he was looking at her with that excitement rather than the person behind her she was protecting. Despite being the de-facto Daimyo at the moment, he was wearing a standard Kumo Chunin outfit. He simply had a blue Kanji for Lightning emblazoned on his back. The only thing that would differentiate him from any random Chunin was his lack of an undershirt under his flak jacket, leaving his intricate lightning bolt tattoos that intertwined up his arms visible.

"Dad was a terrible ruler and you know it, if you had made it back unscathed you would either have had him executed or imprisoned for the remainder of his days. I simply did it myself," He said with an accomplished smirk that turned Getsurei's stomach. "As for you…you're too weak. Our country needs a strong ruler that will expand our power and might. You think the road to prosperity is through negotiations and interactions with the other nations, but you're wrong. Instead, we need to do it through our military might. Kumo isn't a separate entity that can do as it likes, as much as the Raikage thinks it is." He said, putting a hint of distain in his voice at the mention of the Raikage. But collecting himself, Akuhei took a step forward while extending a hand to his brother. "But I'll make you a deal."

"What?" Getsurei said in surprise, he had never known his brother to bargain with anyone. He took what he wanted from whoever he wanted.

"A simple deal…I will let you live if you renounce your claim to the throne…" He said very matter-of-factly before a glint of desire entered his sharp eyes. "And you hand over that Hyuuga girl to me. To do what I please with."

Hinata stepped back a little bit at the inclusion of herself in the brother's discussion. Turning her head she questioned Getsurei, "Wh-what do I have to d-do with anything?"

Getsurei glared dangerously at his brother once he heard the so-called deal that he was offering. "You didn't…" He began.

"But I did," Akuhei spat out, his smirk widening as Getsurei grasped what had truly happened. "You can't think that you're the only target of mine? Sure, ruling is great. But there are better things out there." He said as he looked intently at Hinata. "I of course knew that you would be trying to get the aid of Konoha for your return, and of course they would help you out. Konoha would jump at any chance to strengthen the already strained bond between our two countries. The plan had originally been to just kill you at the most opportune moment, but that all changed when I got a full rundown of your intentions." Raising his hand up to rub his chin, Akuhei let out a small laugh at his brother. "To think that you would specifically request Arashi Himura as an escort just to rub things into Father's face. Then guess what I find out when I looked into the possibilities of the team that will accompany him?" His eyes focused on Hinata as his wide grin seemed to grow even more. "I find out that a Hyuuga is on the team, a Hyuuga of the Main House and the Heiress no less! Kami-sama was smiling down on me. But looking into it further, I found out that she is the same kid we tried to kidnap all those years ago!" He yelled ecstatically, reveling in the irony of fate.

Getsurei snapped his head to Hinata, not knowing that she was the victim of his brother's ambition. "It was you?"

Hinata was beyond shocked. She was looking at an enemy, but apparently much more than that. He had something to do with the kidnapping attempt so long ago that resulted in Neji losing his father and destroying any semblance of a relationship the two of them had.

Akuhei could see the confusion in her face and felt like pushing her further. "To think that the target of my desire to obtain the Byakugan would end up facing me later in life," Hearing this Hinata's eyes widened. "That's right, I was the one who ordered our visiting Shinobi to abduct a Hyuuga. I've been trying forever to obtain your special eye for myself." He smirked at the discomfort shown on Hinata's face. "But that all changed when I learned you would be on this mission. With all the info on your group that we had collected, it was rather easy to manipulate things so that we would meet. Going by your tactics, your Jonin observer would be the first one to break off if an enemy attacked you. Then after that, I knew that the Himura would fight Kinme because of her summons. Then I had Oki separate the other blond from the two of you. It was quite easy, and now here you are! Now my prize is before me, the eyes that I have desired for so long, the final piece to my puzzle!" He said as he laughed loudly. "Now I can take care of two birds with one shuriken, cement my place on the throne and finally obtain the Byakugan."

Still gloating, Akuhei had to move quickly to the side as several kunai whizzed past him. "I'm n-not such a pushover that I'll just l-let you take my eyes and kill a person I've sworn to p-protect." Hinata said, she was resolute in her actions. This man was her enemy, not even because of the mission, but he was an enemy to her village, her family, and to everyone she knew. She refused to lose; there was no way that she would allow it.

"The girl's got some spunk at least, I was hoping to a little fun." He said as he slid into a Taijutsu pose that was all too familiar to Hinata.

"T-That's!"

"Yes, you're precious Juuken. It took years of studying the body provided to us after the kidnapping incident to figure out just how it worked. I trained for years to use it to the highest capability I could, I now just need your eyes to make myself complete."

Rushing forward he attacked with a swift palm strike, the attack harmlessly going over Hinata's head as she duck and spun to avoid it. Keeping her momentum going she swept her leg out to try and knock Akuhei off his feet. But the Chunin was too quick leaping back he came to a rest at a distance, staring her down as he stood in an identical pose as her.

"You're a rather good user of your family's techniques, that's surprising." He said condescendingly.

Hinata dashed to the side, trying to draw Akuhei away from Getsurei. She succeeded in this, he darted after her, weaving in and out of the dense trees around them she managed to get far enough away that he wouldn't get caught up in anything, but close enough that she could still keep an eye on him. Akuhei of course knew what she was doing, but it didn't really matter to him. He would take his prize from the girl and then easily eliminate his brother.

Putting in a burst of speed, he shot ahead of her. Pivoting quickly he tried again to swipe at her with a chakra enhanced palm thrust, only to be once again easily dodged once again. Coming to a stop the both squared off against each other.

To Hinata the situation had become quite odd, without knowing it she had been drawn into another scheme to take the secrets of the Hyuuga. In the process meeting the man who ordered her kidnap face to face and having to fight him, with the added oddness of him knowing a good deal of Juuken. He wasn't great at it, nowhere near her level or Neji's, but proficient enough without the help of a Byakugan. But there was something off about all of it, the way he fought wasn't how Juuken was supposed to be, he was too direct and not fluid enough. It was one of the reasons she had been able to counter him so easily. Aside from that, there was something off about his chakra, looking at him he didn't look like anyone else she had met before. Instead of the gentle flow that normal chakra put out for her to see, his was much more violent and sharp, almost like he was constantly putting out a low level Raiton jutsu.

Suddenly his sped towards her at a great speed, using his momentum he began throwing dozens of finger strikes her way, trying to hit some of her more vital spots. But like she had the other times he had attacked her directly, she seemed to weave in and out of his strikes, like sentient water moving out of the way of the strike. Quickly he leapt back, barely dodging a palm strike that would have smashed into his jaw.

"You're much more skilled than I figured a young Konoha Genin would be." Akuhei hadn't planned for this; he had defeated many people with less effort than he had already put out. His father had fallen with one straight thrust, but that hadn't happened here, she had dodged him like his attacks were harmless swipes from an agitated cat. "I guess I'll have to be a little more serious," He said through a growing grin, replacing his previous frown.

As he said that, Hinata watched in interest as his odd chakra flared. Seeing that, she witnessed several arcs of electricity start sparking out from his arms, as if he were now electrified. Still in his Juuken stance, the only thing that changed was his hands. Instead of the flat palm that should have been showing if he was using Juuken correctly, his had his fingers curled forward like tiger claws held at the ready. She could see the high concentration of electricity sparking in between his fingers, meeting at the center of his palm. It was plain to her that if she was hit, or even grazed by that, things would not go well.

"You see I'm more special that you Hyuuga," he said, pulling Hinata's attention to him and not new crackling form. "My family rules the Land of Lightning not because of political underhandedness, but because we are the embodiment of our land's element. We don't simply have basic chakra like everyone else. Instead we are born with only Raiton chakra. I'm sure that you can see the difference with your Byakugan."

This answered the reason that he seemed different, quickly looking back at Getsurei, she found that while his level was nowhere near his brother's, or anyone who had been trained as a ninja for that matter, he did have the same type of chakra.

"It's a great ability, really fun to use. The only drawback is that we can't use any other type of jutsu other than Raiton based ones. So it has always been easier to use it as a supplement to our Taijutsu. Raiken is great, but once I combined it with all that I learned from studying Juuken, it truly became terrifying." He said with a devilish smile.

"But it's not c-complete yet is it?"

"Sadly no, I still need the Byakugan to make it perfect. Sure I can take someone out with a wide burst attack up close. But with your all seeing eye, I can see great distances and turn Raiken into a super long distance and precise sniping ability. Imagine seeing your enemy miles away and precisely shooting an arc of lighting through their heads without them even seeing their attacker! Or up close I could dodge anything, I could know exactly where to him them to immobilize them, and predict incoming attacks by seeing their chakra spike. It truly is a marvelous ability."

Hinata was astonished; she apparently wasn't the only person thinking up variations to Juuken. His ideas and innovations went far beyond her slight adjustment she made when she used Raijuuken like she did on Hanabi. He knew all the advantages her eyes would bring him and fully knew how to apply them. She was amazed that someone outside her family would have such intimate knowledge of them. It irritated her to a degree, but nothing out of control. 'This man is dangerous, I'm sure Otou-san would be very embarrassed that this much information about us has gotten as far as Kumo.' She thought, narrowing her eyes at the man in front of her.

"I-I won't let you do that, the Byakugan is our p-pride. I won't let it leave K-Konoha!" Hinata spat out at him, she didn't want to be acting like Neji but there was a time a place to be proud of your specialized skills.

"Oh? And are you going to stop me little girl?" Akuhei chuckled.

Hinata didn't give him time to go further with his taunting. Shooting out at him she threw a high kick at his head only to have him duck and thrust a crackling hand at her, with a pivoting jump she threw herself over the attack. Landing directly behind him she gave out a shout and shoved both of her palms out to try and pour a dangerous amount of chakra directly into his spine. But her attack was knocked out of the way as he spun, hitting her incoming arms away with his elbow.

Stumbling to the side the young Hyuuga felt the impact on her wrist, thinking quickly she rolled to the side to avoid a hard heel kick aimed at her neck. Quickly countering she scored the first hit, thrusting two fingers into the side of his exposed knee as she rolled.

"Bitch!" He grimaced as he felt his knee buckle. Seeing her come to her feet, he knew he was in a bad spot, he hadn't thought that such a small tap could bring him to a stop so quickly. In a flash he brought his crackling hand directly in front of her face as she charged him.

With her Byakugan she saw the chakra pouring out of his arm move and collect in his palm.

"Raikou Senkou!" He shouted as a burst of lighting exploded from his hand, darting to the side Hinata barely missed the small blast of electricity that shot past her.

Getting some distance, she groaned at the feeling that she didn't escape unscathed. She felt a slight numbing sensation in her right shoulder, along with the smell of singed cloths. If she had been but a little bit slower, she probably would have lost control of her entire arm, if not anything worse.

With his knee finally responding to him, Akuhei pulled himself to his feet, trying to ignore the remaining tinge of pain left in his joint. Now looking at Hinata with hateful eyes, he brought himself out of the Juuken-esque stance. Now standing straight up, Hinata watched as she saw his chakra pool around his hand again, with a quick movement of his hand it suddenly erupted in electricity. Looking somewhat similar Kakashi's Raikiri, except concentrated on the outer edge of his hand while he held it in a chopping position. "Kiritegeki."

"Look out Hinata-chan! Don't let him touch you with that, he'll cut straight through you!" Getsurei suddenly shouted at her, peeking out from behind a tree nearby, having snuck closer to the fight.

'Baka, I told him to stay where he was.' She thought, her attention averted for only a moment. But that was all that Akuhei needed. In a flash he was behind her, Hinata's eyes went wide as she saw the lightning chop come slicing her way, he was far too close. She wasn't going to be able to fully dodge this one. Putting all her speed into it she tried to duck under the attack, but she was too slow.

The slash had been aimed at taking her head off, but at the last second she had managed to avoid that. Still, the attack had sliced up her upper back and lopped off the hood to her jacket as well. Reacting quickly she planted her hand on the ground and slammed both her feet into his chest, sending him back and hard into a nearby tree.

Rolling to her feet, she wobbled as she felt the blood slowly start to seep down her back from the shallow wound. With her eye still active she could clearly see that she had come out of things on the better side, with her kick she had let out a small amount of chakra through her feet. Looking at Akuhei she could see that she had punched a small hole into one of his lungs. This was furthered by the fact that he was clutching his chest as he gasped for breath.

"You *gasp* fucking *gasp* bitch!" He tried to yell as he struggled to his feet.

The look that he now gave her was completely different from how he had previously. Before he had looked at her in amusement, like their fight was a game he could easily win before taking her eyes. Now he was looking at her like is simple wanted to slaughter her, it was the first time that she had seen him break his calculating look.

Getsurei was much more stunned, he had never seen his brother with the expression he was now wearing, he now resembled Zankoji slightly, a desire to spill Hinata's blood clearly written on his face. The scared man feared that Hinata would not be ready for what was about to be unleashed on her.

Doing a quick scan of the surroundings, she was not pleased to see that she now stood directly in front of the tree that Getsurei was hiding behind. If she was to be attacked with something large and she dodges, it would take him out.

Akuhei suddenly held his hands out in front of him, his index finger and thumb of each hand connected. Hinata became very nervous when she same a huge amount of chakra begin to pool in his hands. So much that they began to spark and crackle violently and it started to build up. It was exactly what she had feared was coming, a large scale attack aimed to take both her and Getsurei out in one fell swoop.

She had no choice, she could only do one thing to try and protect the both of them. Planting a foot she pulled her arms to one side in preparations for her spin. Just as she was doing this Akuhei's eyes snapped fully open.

"Raikou Taihou!" He screamed as a gigantic blast of lightning chakra exploded from his hands, easily twenty times the size of the last blast he had fired at her.

"Kaiten!" She yelled as she began to spin, blowing chakra out from all of her tenketsu, creating a protective spiral vortex of chakra. She could feel it when the blast slammed into the Kaiten. She had to struggle to keep it up, not wanting to have it rip through her barrier.

Yelling in dissatisfaction, Akuhei screamed as he pumped more chakra into the overkill attack. With one final push the Kaiten exploded, shooting Hinata back and knocking her through the tree behind her, skidding to a stop next to the now fleeing Getsurei.

"Hinata!" He yelled as he saw her whole body smoking. Looking back he saw his brother panting loudly and looking very drained. He wouldn't chase after them until he at least regained some of his composure. Grabbing Hinata he dragged her behind another tree to try and figure something out.

The Hyuuga shuddered as she opened her eyes and felt just how much damage she had taken, she could feel splinters from the tree embedded into her back, and the sting from getting hit by a shock that big. But her Kaiten had diverted most of the attack away from her. She had been lucky. "G-Getsurei-san…" She said weakly, pulling herself to a sitting position.

"Hinata!" He exclaimed in joy, she was more or less okay. Now while his brother was catching his breath they had a precious few moments to formulate a plan. "We need to end this now, you're not going to be able to take much more of this." He could see her head dip down in disappointment of how she had been doing so far. He wanted to comfort her and tell her how he had never seen his brother so desperate before, but he didn't have time. "Hinata, I have a plan."

This caught her attention, Getsurei must know his brother far more than most people, and surely he would know something that they can use to their advantage. "Wh-What do you have in m-mind?"

"First, do you have a move that will take him out instantly if you hit him with it?"

"We-Well y-yes…b-but…" She began to say in a very conflicted voice. "I want to b-beat him and h-help you…but…I-I don't want to k-k-kill him." She said as tears began to well up in her eyes, she had seen how tormented Arashi had been after his first kill. She didn't want to have to go through that without support like she had been for him.

Getsurei could see the conflict written across her face, but they had very little time, he had to act quickly. Grabbing her shoulders, he looked into her eyes deeply, a look of desperation in his eyes. "Hinata, he has to be killed. It's not something pretty, but he is a monster. He murdered his own father and is trying to kill his brother. If he takes control of the country he'll start wars, he'll abuse and devastate our own country. Not to mention what he will do to the other nations. Even if we defeat him and let him live, he'll come back at me later and try to stage a coup d'état! Please, I beg you, you have to do this. Think of all the lives you will be saving by just taking one!"

She knew he was right. It was the thing to do. She was a ninja, and killing came with the territory. She needed to be able to do it, or else her hesitation could one day get one of her friends killed. With new resolve she shook the tears out of her eyes. "Y-Yes, I have a move that could d-do it…it's no perfect yet, I sort of got it to work the way I wanted it to recently…b-but it'll do." She said while looking at her hands closely. "N-Now, what plan do you have?"

In response, Getsurei simply rolled his right sleeve up, showing Hinata a thick metal coil that wrapped all the way up his forearm. "This is a chakra amplifier, I haven't been trained like my brother has, but I still have the same type of chakra. I was given this as my last defense. I can use it to amplify what little amount of chakra I have into a small blast of lightning I can shoot out. It would be like the first one Akuhei shot at you. The problem is I can only use it one, then I get really exhausted and I'm unable to do it against for a few days." Clenching his fist he closed his eyes as he began to channel his chakra into the coil slowly. "If you can draw his attention and make him walk past this tree, I can hit him with the shot when he walks past. It will not do much; just stun him for a couple seconds. But it will give you the time to hit him with your attack."

Hinata nodded, seeing that he was already charging up the one time shot, there was no going back. If he missed, the chances of her hitting him with her new attack were low, and the chance that they would both die was huge. "I understand," She said with determination.

Darting further back, she walked out from behind a tree and into Akuhei's field of vision. "There you are, I was beginning to think I had killed you with that last attack. I'm glad I didn't inadvertently harm your eyes. Now come on, let's finish this little game." He said with a snarl.

Hinata then knew how she would draw him closer. "I told you before, I-I'm not going to l-let you have my e-eyes." Taking two kunai out she held them right before her eyes, causing Akuhei's to open in shock. "I-I can't beat you…b-but I at least won't let you get w-what you want." She said, threatening to jam the knives into her eyes, stealing away Akuhei's dream of perfecting himself.

"Now now, don't be hasty. You wouldn't want to ruin yourself that way…" He said nervously, he hadn't anticipated this. He knew there was no way for her to win, but hadn't figured that she would try this. Being a Main House Hyuuga she didn't have the Caged Bird Seal that prevented him from taking the eyes from the body he had studied to learn some of Juuken. "We can work this out…" Inching forward, he held his hands up before him as if he was showing her that he didn't have any ill will towards her. The sparks that had been coming from his arms immediately stopped. "See, I won't hurt you, just don't be rash here. You have something special there."

He was getting closer, but not close enough. With her eyes still active she was just waiting for a sign from Getsurei to tell her he was ready. No sooner had she checked on him, did she see him nod his head before he extended his arm outwards. He aimed at the point that Akuhei hopefully would pass by when he got closer.

Getting the signal, she enacted her plan to get him the final distance. "No matter what you say, I'll destroy my eyes before I let you have them!" She yelled before pulled this kunai back, making it look like she was about to stab them into herself.

Akuhei fell for the ruse, and he fell hard. "NOOOO!" He screamed as he bolted for her, hoping to knock the kunai away before they ripped into his prize. But he soon realized his fault when he passed a tree and saw Getsurei crouched down with his arm extended at him out of the corner of his eye. "SHIIIIIT!" He yelled just as Getsurei released his one chance.

"Raikou Taihou!" The burst of electricity streaked out, striking Akuhei directly in the side.

He immediately lost control of his body. Akuhei slumped to his knees, his gaze drifting back from his brother and to the girl standing directly in front of him. The kunai she had trapped him with were buried in the ground from when she flung then aside to close the distance between the two of them. He knew it was over, they had outsmarted him. Taken advantage of his lust for the Byakugan and his confidence in his victory, he hadn't even considered that his brother would become a part of the fight. Let alone the piece that led to his end.

Seeing the girl in from of him dip down into a Juuken stance he knew what should be coming. But something was off, instead of a uniform concentration of chakra surrounding her extended fingers as she prepared for her jutsu, he saw the chakra spiraling around them.

"I'm sorry." She said painfully before fully getting into her stance. "Rasenken!" She shouted, confusing Akuhei. She wasn't going to finish him off with Juuken? "Hakke Rokujūyon Shō!" She struck out with both of her hands, striking him hard on the left shoulder and the neck. The instant she touched him Akuhei began screaming as if his insides were being torn apart. "Two strikes!" She then hit him four more times, every time she connected, he screams would get louder and more pained. "Four strikes! Eight strikes! Sixteen Strikes! Thirty-two strikes! Sixty-four strikes!" She yelled as she connected the final strike, a hard palm thrust into his chest that sent him flying back into the trunk of a tree, making a sickening thud against it.

Out of breath, Hinata looked at the now dead Akuhei, he looked nothing like he had previously, his general form was still there. But he looked like the majority of his insides had been run through a blender. Looking at him with her Byakugan didn't help; he didn't look like a person inside anymore. Falling to her knees she instantly threw up.

"Wh-What did you do to him?" Getsurei quietly asked in shock as he looked at the corpse of his former brother.

"It…It didn't work right…" she mumbled under her breath as the tears started flowing down her cheeks. "It's what I h-had been training on the w-whole mission…it adds a spin to the chakra I push into my enemy. Instead of it hitting their insides and chakra network like a wave it is supposed to tear it apart like a small version of Arashi-kun's jutsu. I'm sorry…the way he is n-now is b-because I made that strike t-too big. It's nor r-refined enough…w-when it's perfected it s-should be able to be so precise that it w-will only attack the t-tenketsu…tearing them apart…and m-making it so that they could never m-mold chakra again." She knew that she wasn't good enough at it to leave her opponent alive, but she didn't think that it would have mutilated him as badly as it had.

"That's amazing!" Getsurei shouted, getting Hinata to look at him in confusion. "So you're saying that with practice, you could basically take a ninja's ability to use chakra away? And do so without killing them?" Getting a tearful nod back, he smiled at her. "I think only someone as kind and gentle as you could come up with something like that. I'm sorry that you had to kill him like that, but myself and my whole country thank you. Thank you for saving us from him." He said as he bowed deeply to her.

Having a soon to be Daimyo bow to you was not something Hinata went through every day. "Y-Your welcome Getsurei-san…" She tried to say with a smile, but just as she did her strength gave out and she collapsed to the ground.

"Hinata!" Seeing her body still breathing, he figured that she had just passed out from chakra exhaustion. Her last move must have been very taxing on her. With Hinata out, the only thing he could do was wait for the others to find him. At least he hoped it would be the others, he didn't think that the Guard Shinobi would have beaten the other members of their group. He had seen firsthand the drive and determination of Naruto and Arashi, they had shown him that Konoha ninja were not to be trifled with. Feeling the exhaustion that came with using his coil, he leaned up against the tree behind him to wait for the others.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It had been three days since they had made it to the Capitol. All of the retainers had been overjoyed when they saw that it was Getsurei that had returned. After hearing about how he owned his life to those accompanying him the perception of Konoha greatly rose for those who word eventually got around to.

As soon as they reached their destination, all of them had been given medical treatment. Out of all of them Hayate and Arashi were in the worst shape. Hinata had been easy enough to heal, after some quick work treating the injuries she had obtained on her back, she was given a room to recuperate in. Naruto was simply given a few bandages and allowed to go wherever he wanted. Hayate was given a good deal of stitches to close the wound on his arm, he had aggravated it by exerting himself too much in trying to catch up to Hinata and Getsurei. As for Arashi, he was treated for the terrible burn he had sustained on his left shoulder. He was out for the first day, after which he was given a sling so as not to disturb the healing skin. While the doctors were astonished at how quick he was healing, it was still evident that he would have a permanent scar there to go along with the ones he had picked up from Gaara on his torso.

But when he woke up, it wasn't knowing that he would have another scar that he was having trouble coming to grips with. It was the fact that in his fight a good deal of his hair had been burned off. After having it trimmed so it would look even he eventually accepted that it was a good fit. It now stood up in short spikes that swept back and up, with one short spike dangling out in front of his forehead. It wasn't until Hinata said she really liked his new look that he begrudgingly took a liking to it as well.

After taking it easy and healing up for two days, they now found themselves standing to the side of the throne, waiting Getsurei to finally make his way to it. He was currently on a huge palanquin, in the middle of the biggest parade the Konoha shinobi had ever seen.

Confetti fell from the sky like it was rain. There were thousands of cheering people lined the streets all hoping to catch a glimpse of their new ruler. The celebration was amplified by the hundred trumpeters that lined the side of the parade route. It was a day that everyone in attendance would never forget. A day that made Arashi more proud of himself than he had ever been, despite suffering a defeat himself his mission had been an overwhelming success. Because of their influence they had helped brush aside the old regime and usher in the new.

The closer Getsurei got to them, the louder the cheers became. Taking in everything Naruto was amazed, he had never experienced celebration on this scale before. Looking around several things caught his eye more than others. Looking at the crowds, almost every person that looked old enough to have known Getsurei's grandfather seemed to be weeping tears of joy. He could only take that as a reflection of just how horrible Ieyasu had been to them all. The next was some of the people awaiting the new Daimyo along with him and his group.

The first one that caught his eye was clearly the Raikage. Adorned in Kage robes, he was an imposing man. He was completely different looking from Sandaime or Tsunade, Naruto's only frame of reference as to what a Kage should look like. With his huge stature, stern face, and rippling muscles the man looked like a true warrior.

But it was the man beside the Raikage that really caught his attention. Like the Raikage he had dark skin, stood a little shorter, had white hair done up in corn rows, and he was wearing little black glasses and many swords strapped to his back. He didn't know what, but there was something about the man that Naruto was drawn to.

Much like the feeling he got from the man, there was a smaller woman on the other side of the Raikage that he was drawn to. She was an exceedingly beautiful blonde, with her hair done up in a long thin ponytail. She had sharp piercing eyes that somewhat resembled a cat's that kept scanning the crowds.

Coming out of his thoughts Naruto saw that Getsurei had arrived at the end of the parade. The moment he stepped out of the palanquin the crowds erupted in cheering. With a wide grin, he slowly made his way to his seat. The moment he sat down the Raikage stepped forward in front of the crowd.

"I give you Getsurei Raikou, your new Daimyo!" He bellowed in his deep voice. Immediately after, the crowd went nuts.

With a nod from Getsurei, the Raikage moved back into his previous position. With the stage clear before him, the Daimyo stood to address his people.

"My people, I must apologies for the way you have had to endure. My father pushed you to the brink of what people should endure. I promise you that I will make this country a better place for everyone in it. We will prosper and grow like we never have before! With new allies and new bonds we will become greater!" He said as he looked back to his Konoha friends. "I swear to you today, that first and foremost in my mind are you! The people, from whom I owe everything!" He finished with a slight bow, instantly the crowd erupted in applause like never before. The country would be changed for the better this time.

A few hours later, the ceremony had come to a close and things had slowed down. Arashi had found himself in a conversation with one of the council members that had accompanied them to the banquet hall that they were currently in. They had been discussing how things used to be, specifically the general hate aimed at his name. "But you're much different than what most people think of when they hear the name Himura." The man was clearly drunk and Arashi was trying to find a way to get back to where Hinata was standing. "Oh boy, I remember those days like it was yesterday; Sano Himura and Minato Namikaze. Those names sure take me back." He chuckled.

The second name he had said caught his attention, was he related to Yondaime? "I'm sorry, but I've never heard of Minato Namikaze, who was he?"

This set the councilman off in a fit of hard laughter. "You mean to tell me you don't know the name of your most celebrated Hokage?"

Now Arashi was confused. "If you're talking about the Yondaime Hokage, his name was Arashi Namikaze. I should know, I was named after him. He and my mother were on their Genin teams together."

Still laughing at the boy, the councilman patted him on the shoulder. "Sure you are, I would look into my history if I were you. You wouldn't want to embarrass yourself in front of any more people than just me." With that he left to get away from one of the most ignorant young boys he had ever met.

Still confused, Arashi called out to the Hokage within him. 'I'm right here aren't I? Or are you for some reason named something different in different countries?'

In response he first heard a kind of shudder of disgust. **"Well technically both of you are right."**

'And what exactly does that mean?'

"**Well…you were named after me…weeeell…after the name I preferred to be known by. My actual name is really Minato, I just never really liked it so I changed it. I mean come on; would you rather be a harbor than a storm? Arashi just had such a great ring to it. When I graduated from the academy I made sure to have Ero-Sensei and the others refer to me as Arashi. It just stuck after that. Everyone in Konoha knows me as that. But I was still officially registered as Minato…"**

Arashi had to agree, his name did sound better. He couldn't imagine being named Minato Himura. It just didn't fit. But the more he thought on it, the better it sounded on the Hokage. 'I don't know, Minato Namikaze sounds pretty good, it flows rather nicely.' He could hear the Hokage snarl at him in response. Arashi could only laugh; he had finally found something he could use to annoy him. He could finally get back at him for interrupting so many Hinata filled dreams for chat sessions. 'I think it fits you. Well, I'll see you later tonight for some training Minato-sama.' He thought, cutting the connection just as Yondaime was about to scream at him in annoyance.

Elsewhere, Naruto was currently sitting down at one of the many tables in the palace enjoying a hot bowl of ramen. He had been mulling over everything that had gone on. Mostly what had happened with him and the Kyuubi.

Just thinking about it made his face scrunch up into a disgusted look. 'I can't believe that fox tried to trick me like that, using all the time we've interacted together to try and get me on his side. He tutored me, told me things I wouldn't have heard anywhere else, he helped me when I needed it. But it all turned out to be an elaborate escape attempt.' He thought, his anger increasing over the situation. This time he called out to the fox with his thoughts. 'I swear Fox; I'll never rely on you again. I'll do it all on my own, I don't need you.'

In response he heard a low chuckle; apparently Kyuubi had given up every pretext of appearing to be the nurturing female guise that he had been perpetrating all these years. **"You may think that now, but I can promise you that you'll need me. Be it sooner or later brat. Now that I'm not assisting you at every turn how well do you think you'll compare to that Yondaime brat?"**

Naruto instantly shut the connection, not wanting to have to deal with the emotional trip that Kyuubi was trying to put him through.

"Attention everyone, I have an announcement I would like to make." Getsurei said, drawing the attention of everyone in the banquet hall and pulling Naruto away from his thoughts. With all of those present now gathered around him the Daimyo went into what he wanted to say. "Firstly I would like to once again extend my thanks to my saviors, Hayate Gekko, Naruto Uzumaki, Arashi Himura," The crowd murmured at the mention of the Himura name, but quickly died down once they saw the wide smile on their leader's face. "And most importantly, Hinata Hyuuga."

At this Hinata blushed bright red, not used to accolades of this kind. After the rest had been told just what Hinata had done, they all gain an ever higher level of respect and appreciation of her than they already had. Each of them was very proud of her for her role.

"Once you return, please inform your Hokage that I would greatly like to form an alliance between our two countries, one that will hopefully raise our two nations to even greater heights." At this the crowd murmured even louder, proclamations in his speech were one thing, but they had been mortal enemies with Konoha for generations. It would take a lot to form a strong bond with them.

"And finally, I wish to do something possibly a little drastic," At this those around gulped loudly. What could be more drastic than proposing an alliance with Konoha? Walking up to Hinata with a soft smile on his face he gently grabbed her had, getting a questioning look from the Himura nearby. Looking at her in the eyes he began to speak. "Hinata-chan, I would like to ask for your hand in marriage."

At this the crowd went silent, half of their jaws hit the ground and the others were left looking like gaping fish out of water.

"WHAT?" Arashi screamed. He instantly tried to shoot off at the Daimyo but was held back by Naruto.

Hinata was stunned, shakily and with a face the color of a tomatoe she withdrew her hand from Getsurei's. "I-I'm sorry, I can't marry you…" Getsurei looked disappointed but he at least understood a bit. "I-I can't m-m-marry you…b-because I am al-already be-betrothed to someone else."

"EEEEHH?" Arashi screamed, this time Naruto released him, knowing what was going on. Rushing up to Hinata he grabbed a hold of her shoulders firmly. "You're already betrothed? When? To Who? What about us?" He asked, fear painted across his face.

With a smile prettier than any Arashi had ever seen, Hinata simply reached her hand up and held it against his cheek lovingly. "I'm betrothed to you Arashi-kun."

"Wha…" Was all he got out before he promptly feignted, knocking his head hard of the solid wood floor. Hayate and Naruto could only roll their eyes.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**The Lightning Daimyo Arc finally ends, next chapter they will be back home. What awaits them after their return? What has changed? What will Arashi do now that he knows of his marriage? And what implications arise when Orochimaru puts his plans into action? Find out next time!**

**To be perfectly honest, I don't know why this took so long to put out. I just lost a desire to get back into things. Every now and then I would try reading fanfics to reinvigorate myself, but I found that most of them were crap. But I stumbled across a story a little while ago that really put me back into things, "New Life, Second Chances" by Kiiam. **

**Of course the ultimate irony is that one I got back into things, I wrote this chapter in about 3 hours…sad, I know. It takes me over a year and a half to get back into it, and then it takes the amount of time of a long movie to pump out the chapter.**

**Now that I'm back, please review. It will keep me in this spirit!**

**Jutsu List:**

Juuken – Gentle Fist

Raiken – Lightning Fist

Raijuuken – Gentle Lightning Fist

Raikou Senkou – Lightning Flash

Kiritegeki – Shock Cutter

Raikou Taihou – Lightning Cannon

Kaiten – Rotation

Rasenken: Hakke Rokujūyon Shō – Spiral Fist: Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms


	39. Back in Konoha

**Disclaimer**: I do NOT own Naruto; just Arashi and any other OCs.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The past couple days had been awkward at best. Naruto could only groan at the situation that he now found himself in. They had been on the road back to Konoha for a while. The trek back wasn't the problem; it was the mood of the group. One would think that after liberating another country from a tyrannical ruler, Team 7 would be beaming with confidence. But the revelation that Arashi was betrothed to Hinata seemingly had turned to mood sour from his perspective. After Arashi had woken up from fainting after hearing the news, he immediately ordered that they leave for home.

There had been no response to the issue of his marriage and no discussion of it with Hinata. The whole time they had been on the road, she consistently looked like she was about to burst into tears. The young blond could only try to imagine the thoughts going through her head. Hayate stayed in the back of the group, seemingly not wanting to be pulled into whatever was going on with Arashi.

Naruto had tried to speak to his friend about it, but instantly got brushed off when Arashi said he was trying to fall asleep. But the longer into their return, the more exhausted Arashi seemed to be getting, something very unlike him. But it was a trait that Naruto knew all too well of, having this in mind he sought out Hinata to try and talk with her.

"Uh, Hinata?" He said before he opened the flap of her tent, not wanting to wake her up. Hearing her respond he walked in, only to find her curled up in a ball on her sleeping bag. She had her face buried in her pillow and was obviously crying her eyes out.

"Wh-what's happened Naruto-kun? He hates me…he won't t-talk to me…he won't e-even look at me!" She squeaked out between sobs.

"He doesn't hate you Hinata. This all is just a huge shock to him."

"I can u-understand that, b-but he hasn't s-said one word ab-about it since." Pulling herself into a tighter ball, Naruto himself was on the verge of tears for her.

"You need to go talk to him about it, make him sit down and talk with you."

Hinata slowly pulled herself up to look at Naruto. "How? As soon as we make c-camp he goes to bed, and as soon as we w-wake up we head out for the day."

"Listen to me; I've never seen him like this so I can't tell you what's going through his head. But I know him well enough to know what he's doing." Naruto said as he grabbed onto her shoulders. "Don't you find it odd that every day he seems to get more and more exhausted?" The look in her eye told Naruto that she hadn't even noticed this fact. "He isn't going in and going to sleep as soon as we make camp, he's doing it to wait till we all fall asleep so he can go out and train I think. He's exhausted because he hasn't slept in four days!"

Hinata gasped at the realization, what thought process could be driving him to hurt himself that way. "W-Why would he?"

"That's what you need to find out. This is your problem, and you need to solve it yourself. I'm sorry that you've been so hurt about this, when I see him in the morning I'll give him a hard one for you." Naruto said as he clenched his fist.

"Y-Yes!" Hinata exclaimed before getting up and running out into the woods to look for Arashi.

Getting out of Hinata's tent, Naruto sighed and looked up at the tree he was standing next to. "Thanks for letting me know what he'd been doing at night, I knew something was up."

"I didn't want to butt in, but it was really *cough* starting to get on my nerves. I swear, those Himura can be the most stubborn people." Hayate replied as he dropped to the ground.

Dashing through the trees as quickly and quietly as she could, Hinata finally heard what could only have been Arashi. Coming to a halt in a tree overlooking the clearing that he was standing in, she could only look on in amazement as she saw what he was doing. He was standing in the middle on the clearing, breathing heavily and drenched with sweat. In his right hand he held a fully formed and spinning Rasengan, and in his left there seemed to be an orb of ice about the same size of the Rasengan. Taking in the surroundings, she could clearly see dozens of smashed ice orbs at his feet.

She soon realized that he was training to try and use the Rasengan in his left hand as well as his right. From what they had told her about their training to learn it the first time, it was a grueling experience that ended up damaging their chakra networks from overuse. Looking closely at the ice orb he was holding, she could see a faint blue glow begin to grow inside. In an instant it flashed, but the end result was simply a small crack appearing on the orb.

"FUUUCK!" Arashi screamed as he threw the orb to the ground, shattering it and sending pieces of it hurtling everywhere. The blond boy stared to pace back and forth, seemingly fuming with anger. After a minute or so, Hinata watched as he ran through a series of hand signs. Suddenly, in a puff of smoke a second Arashi was standing beside him. "You know the drill." Arashi growled.

In a flash one of them leapt at the other, drawing Heijin instantly and making a swipe. A slash first, followed by a quick succession of deadly thrusts. The attacking Arashi was clearly trying to finish off the other one quickly. Hinata had seen Naruto fight his Kage Bunshin before, but never at the level of intensity that she was witnessing with Arashi. The more she thought, the more she knew that she had never seen Arashi use Kage Bunshin or anything of the sort before. She wondered why he had started using it now, and how he learned it.

She was brought out of her thoughts when she saw the attacking Arashi vanish in a burst of speed, instantly she saw him appear behind the other one and try to ram his sword through his opponents back. But in an equally impressive show of speed, the defensive Arashi swayed to the side, avoiding the blow. Flowing like water the defensive Arashi didn't even look like he was putting up a fight, he would dodge everything thrown at him. A thrust meant to pierce his heart found only air as he weaved in between the attacks that were increasingly speeding up. Flipping backwards he narrowly avoided a slash that would have taken off his head. Then as quickly as he had landed he rolled to the side to get out of the way of a hard kick shooting towards his chest. As soon as he rolled, Hinata saw his eyes harden with determination. The next move was so fast that all she saw was a bright flash of light and the click of the defensive Arashi returning his sword to its sheath.

She couldn't help herself when she saw the Arashi who had been on the offensive's head sailing away from its body, blood pouring out of its cloven neck. "Arashi-kun!" She yelled as she leapt down from her perch.

The Arashi still standing was surprised to hear her, but knew what had made her freak out. "Relax Hina-chan, I'm fine. I'm the real one…look." He said as he pointed at the corpse next to him. She looked closely, slowly she watched as all of the color faded away from it until it was all white. "It's just a Yuki Bunshin, I'm sorry you had to see something like that." He said, his voice trailing off at the end and his eyes lowering to the ground.

Quickly realizing that she was now exposed, she needed to get him to talk. Naruto had been right about him training; now she needed to know why. "Why are you doing this Arashi-kun? Why won't you look me in the eye? Why won't you speak to me? Is being be-be-betrothed to me such a horrible thought?" Tears were welling up in her eyes as she tried to talk with Arashi.

Just looking at her was the most painful thing that Arashi had ever done, before his eyes her heart was breaking apart. All because of him and how he was acting. Stepping forward he wrapped his arms around Hinata. "I'm so sorry Hina-chan. I've been this way because I'm scared…I'm scared of losing you."

"Huh?" She asked, astounded by the sudden contact as well as the sadness pouring off his voice.

"Being married to you is one of my happiest thoughts; it's something I've dreamed about for a long time. It's not because I don't love you that I have been this way, it's because I'm afraid. Afraid I'm too weak…too weak to protect myself, too weak to protect you, too weak to protect anyone. This mission has showed me that I'm not as strong as I thought I was. I was the only one to lose to who they fought. It's disgraceful. If I can't even protect myself correctly, then how can I expect to protect you and one day our family?" He said as tears of his own began to well up.

Hinata now understood, Arashi clearly had been dealing with his loss hard and to dump the shock of marriage on him right afterwards, it had been too much for him to handle. Hinata quickly pulled her arms around him and buried her heard in his chest. "You don't need to shoulder the World Arashi-kun, I love you more than anything and if you are dealing with something I want to be the one to help you. You're strong, very strong…but I'm strong too. If there is ever a time we can't protect something ourselves…I promise you that we can protect it better together." Pulling her head back and with a huge smile on her face she leaned forward to press her lips against his.

Breaking the kiss Arashi couldn't hold his tears back any longer. He dropped to Hinata's feet. "I'm so sorry for putting you through this; I've caused you so much pain these last few days."

With a smile she pulled him up from the ground. "I should have talked with you about it the moment you started acting distant. B-But since w-we're going to be h-h-husband and w-wife someday…you need to communicate better." She said as her face turned bright red and the words husband and wife.

Whipping the tears from his eyes, he smiled gently at her. "You're going to make a wonderful wife…" He said as he wrapped his arm around her and turned to head back to camp, "…my wife."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Tsundae-sama!" Shizune yelled as she burst through the doors and into her mentor's office.

"What…did someone die?" Tsunade said groggily, having been woken up from a particularly good dream by her assistant.

"Team 7 has just returned!"

This grabbed the Hokage's full attention instantly. "Why didn't you say so sooner? Get them over here!"

Shizune just sighed at Tsunade's contradictory attitude. "They're already on their way up, I ran into them when I was getting some paperwork from downstairs."

Tsunade chose to forget the bit about more paperwork, but could now relax fully that they were back in the village. No sooner had she taken a sigh of relief did the returning four enter her office. The first thing she noticed was that Hayate's arm was still in a sling, from the mission report she received by carrier wolf a few days ago his injury didn't seem that serious. The next thing was the change to Arashi's hair; she thought it fit him well. It made him look sleeker and slightly wolf-like, very fitting for the Himura. Lastly were the stupid happy smiles plastered on both Arashi and Hinata's faces while they held hands blissfully.

"Welcome back you four, from your mission report it sounded like it was quite the ordeal." Knitting her fingers beneath her chin, she smirked at them. She was very impressed with what they had done. It really was a mission that was beneficial for everyone that made it out of it. "Firstly I would like to extend my personal congratulations and thanks. Due to your success, our country has forged a strong bond with Lightning, the likes of which has never existed before. Due to the circumstances that appeared during the mission that were outside the original mission parameters, and the importance of completion, your mission was upgraded to an S-Rank mission. Congratulations of completing your first S-Rank mission your three." She beamed.

"That's awesome!" Naruto yelled. The promise of more money was always a draw for him. Hinata let out a small giggle at his over the top response.

"While all that is great, there were still several times that your mission was put in jeopardy and all of your lives were in great danger. I hope this serves as a teaching tool in the future so the mistakes made won't be repeated Arashi." She said as she looked hard at the boy, making him swallow hard. "Your tactical mistake in your first run in with Zankoji cost you several days, and allowed the enemy to know some of your abilities while you were in the dark about their skills. Instead of fighting your enemy one on one at the end you should have used your superior numbers to eliminate them quickly and easily. I'm especially disappointed that a highly skilled Jonin like you, Hayate, could be injured by a Kumo Chunin like you were. But lastly, once your mission parameters are met, there is no need to include more in the report Arashi. Incidentally…congratulations to the two of you."

While Arashi had turned a light color red at the Hokage's last comment, he did feel quite embarrassed with the mistakes he had made. Hayate had told him of his mistake in dealing with Zankoji, to have it repeated meant that it was glaringly obvious. Her second point hadn't even crossed his mind when planning the final leg of the mission.

Pushing her chair back, Tsunade stood to address the group. "Be that as it may, it was a very well executed for the first mission under your command Arashi. All of you are off duty for the next week to recuperate after such a long and trying mission, I hope you'll enjoy yourselves. You all are dismissed." With a bow, they all turned to leave. "Oh, just one last thing, Hinata could you stay back for a little bit. I'd like to have a word with you alone."

This surprised Hinata greatly, what could the Hokage possibly want to speak with her about. "Of course Tsunade-sama."

Letting go of Arashi's hand she stayed where she had been standing as both Naruto and Hayate left with a wave. Only Arashi stayed behind, clearly wanting to say something. "When you're done here, come meet me at your house, I want to have a talk with your Father."

"I'll see you there." She said before giving him a peck on the cheek. Once Arashi had left, Hinata found herself in a private meeting with the Hokage. Shizune was standing to the side of her desk, but the intimidation Hinata was feeling made her forget that she was there. "What w-was it you wanted to s-see me about?"

"I was very impressed with what I read about your part in the mission. Akuhei Raikou was a very well known and feared Shinobi. I understand that was the first time you've ever killed someone, correct?" Hinata simply nodded, a little downcast and the reminder of what she wanted to forget. "It's not something you need to feel bad about; from what I read he had it coming. Killing always left a bad taste in my mouth as well, I don't like doing it but I understand it needs to be done sometimes. Do you understand that?"

"Of course, it's just different when you d-do it y-yourself."

"I can understand that…it's a shame you didn't make it further in the exams, you'd make an excellent Chunin." Hinata was taken aback at this comment, the Hokage, the leader of their village, was commending her skills and lamenting that she wasn't of Chunin rank. "Jiraiya also seems to think very highly of you as well. You must be very skilled if he holds you in high regard. He isn't impressed easily. I'm speaking to you now because of what he has told me about you."

"Ji-Jiraiya-sama is impressed with me as well?" She said as she felt her cheeks began to brighten.

"He even accused Sarutobi-sensei of favoritism in creating a monster team like yours. Anyway, down to business…I'd like to ask you a few questions, they might get a little personal, but they will help me assess you." Hinata readily agreed. "Firstly, why did you want to become a Ninja in the first place?"

Hinata had to think for a short while before coming to her answer. "Well originally it was partly because that's just what people in my family do. I never have really thought about doing anything else..." Tsunade frowned slightly at this motivation. "But what really drove me to want to be a Ninja was that I wanted to help. I wanted to protect that which was precious to me, my family, my sister, and my friends. Once I got a little older and started in the Academy, I met Arashi-kun and Naruto-kun and e-everyone else…I wanted to get strong to protect them and the bond we shared. I wanted them to be happy, and live in a place that could make them such. By being a Ninja I would be contributing to the protection of our village that we all love so much."

"Very well said Hinata, that's a very commendable attitude; you really want to help people don't you?" She said with a wide smile, Hinata was like how she was as a kid. "Next question, out of everyone that graduated with you, you have improved at the most drastic pace. Why do you think you have improved so much?"

"W-Well, I don't think I'm the one who's improved the m-most…Naruto-kun and Arashi-kun have become so strong. Shikamaru and Chouji have grown by leaps and bounds, Ino and Sakura have both learned so many different things, and Kiba and Shino have specialized themselves so much." She said, being humble without even thinking about it.

Tsunade's eyes focused hard at her. "I can't help notice that you left out Sasuke…"

"I don't think those driven by r-revenge can improve themselves." Hinata stated firmly.

'She has some spunk hidden under all that niceness.' Tsunade thought with a grin. "I agree with you in that regard. Well focusing on you, why do you think you have improved so much?"

"I believe it's because Arashi-kun and Naruto-kun are so strong, they push me be better myself just by being there. If I didn't have the determination to improve, they I would just be left behind and become a hindrance to them."

"And what is your dream, what do you want to see happen at all costs?" Tsunade asked with a smile. She liked where this was going. Hinata was almost perfect.

"That's simple…I want to do anything and everything I can to make Arashi-kun and Naruto-kun Hokages!" She stated. Looking at her Tsunade could see the fire burning in her eyes. It was that fire that she had hoped to find, the determination to never give up and give it her all.

"It would seem we're done here then, you pass." Tsunade said with a smile.

"Anou…what was the purpose of asking m-me all those things?"

"To make sure you were the right one to become my apprentice!" Tsunade exclaimed.

Hinata could hardly wrap her mind around it; she had just been chose to become the apprentice of one of the Sannin, and the Hokage of Konoha!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It almost felt odd for him to be back in Konoha, while their mission had only taken a little over three weeks to finish. He felt like he hadn't been back in Konoha for years. It was a strange feeling, but it was good to be back. The familiar feel of walking down the dirt streets to the Hyuuga household, the sense of anticipation he got whenever he would come near the building; either because he was going to see Hinata or because he would have to deal with certain members of her family.

Upon reaching the imposing compound, he found the spot he normally waited on, on the other side of the road from the entrance. He simply was leaning against the picketed wall of some other compound. He normally could watch the entrance for Hinata without running the risk of Hanabi dropping something on him from a window again. Much like when he normally waited in front of the Hyuuga compound he instantly knew when someone was coming out, this time it wasn't Hinata, it was Neji.

"Hey, Neji!" Arashi proclaimed with a wave when he saw the boy walk out.

"Arashi-san, when did you get back?" Neji exclaimed once he saw that it was who he thought it was.

"Just now, I just came from debriefing with Baa-chan. How has it been around here, it feels like I've been gone for a while." Arashi said with a wide grin.

"If you're back, then Hinata-sama has returned as well?"

"Baa-chan asked to speak with her after we were done in there. I don't think she'll be too long." He responded.

"What could the Hokage want with Hinata-sama?" Neji pondered.

"Who knows, I don't think you need to worry; shouldn't be anything too serious. By the way, Hina-chan has gotten crazy good! I think she'd be able to handle you without any problems." The Himura said, half wanting to prod Neji a bit but mostly because he knew she could.

"Hinata-sama's skills have been improving at an increasing rate. But I'll have to see for myself if she can 'take me'." He said using air quotes, clearly not thinking that she could.

"Just make sure I'm there when you go at it, I'd love to watch that fight. So are you heading out anywhere in particular?"

"No, actually Hiashi-sama told me we had a guest and to see what he wanted. I wouldn't have thought it was you." Neji responded as if reciting an order.

"So he already knew I was here…well you can go tell him that when Hina-chan gets here I'd like to have the three of us sit down and have a conversation about this whole betrothal thing." He said, rubbing his chin, already going through all the things he wanted to say to the Hyuuga head.

"She told you already? I will inform Hiashi-sama as to your request. When Hinata-sama returns come in and say that you have an audience with Hiashi-sama." Neji said before turning to leave. "And good luck."

Knowing that Hiashi knew he was coming was a load off the Himura's mind. He had been stressing out over how to just walk in there and ask to meet with the head of their clan. But with Neji gone, he had to go back to waiting for Hinata. By chance Arashi happened to look up and into one of the windows that faced the street he was waiting in. Of course with his luck he looked directly into the one that currently had Hanabi on the other side of it, glaring daggers at him.

He was just about to make some kind of obscene gesture to tick her off, but was stopped by the voice he loved calling his name. "Arashi-kun!" He heard Hinata shout as she came into view, rushing down the street quickly. Finally coming to a stop beside him, he had to wait a moment as she tried to catch her breath.

"So what did Baa-chan want?" He asked curiously.

"She…S-She…She made me her apprentice!" Hinata gasped, still brimming with excitement.

"What?" He exclaimed in surprise. Quickly he grabbed her in a huge celebratory hug. "That's awesome Hina-chan!" He yelled as they spun in happiness before he stopped and came back to a stop. "Does that mean you're going to learn medical ninjutsu and all that?"

"I hope so, I've always thought I could be a great medic. Plus I can help the most people if I learn how to heal people from the best medical Ninja in the world!" Arashi could tell that Hinata was just about as happy as she had ever been.

Grabbing her hand he began to walk into the compound. After telling the guards what Neji had told him to say, they were quickly brought in and led to one of the many meeting rooms within the main house. Much to Arashi's surprise, Hiashi was already waiting for them when they arrived. "How nice to see the both of you, that was quite the lengthy mission." The Hyuuga leader said with a smile, motioning for the two to be seated.

It was a medium sized room, a large table sat in the middle separating Arashi and Hinata from Hiashi who sat on the other side. As per usual in the Hyuuga compound, there were hardly any decorations to be seen in the room, just a set of crossed Katana hung on the wall behind Hiashi. After taking his seat, Arashi noticed that tea had been placed on the table in preparation for them.

"Otou-san, I've missed you." Hinata said as she went and gave her father a big hug before taking her seat. The happiness of being back home was plain to see on her face, but so was Hiashi's happiness at having her back. Arashi could only smile at the familial display before him, something he only knew through observation.

With the pleasantries over Hinata began to wonder exactly why Arashi had wanted to meet with her father. 'It has to be about the betrothal, it's not like Arashi-kun loves sitting down to talk with Otou-san.'

"Neji informed me that you wished to speak to me about your betrothal to my daughter." Hiashi stated flatly, his business voice clearly being used.

Hinata was then thrown for a loop when Arashi placed his head to the ground in the lowest bow she had ever seen him use. Hiashi's eyebrow rose slightly at this show of gratitude. "Thank you greatly for the honor of Hinata Hyuuga's hand in marriage. You honor both me and my clan in choosing to trust your daughter with me. Through this marriage our two clans with forge a bond that will never be broken, if ever the Hyuuga need assistance the Himura will be first to volunteer our help in whatever manner we can. We also hope that the same can be expected from the Hyuuga."

"Absolutely." Hiashi stated with a grin.

Rising from his bow, Arashi grinned as he looked at the Hyuuga head. "On a personal note, I thank you for your help in orchestrating this union, I know how clans of your standing operate and know that you acted out of love for your daughter so as to save her from a loveless political marriage. I thank you again from the bottom of my heart for feeling that I am worthy of her."

Hinata was blown away, she had never heard Arashi speak that way; he sounded like seasoned Clan Head, well versed in the proper etiquette demanded for the situation. She looked to her Father, who looked to have a look of amusement on his face.

"I commend you on your knowledge of what should be said, you did better than I thought you would. But now that it is out of the way, please speak to me as my soon to be son-in-law, not the Himura Clan Head." Hiashi said with a smile, he was impressed with the boy. He had a feeling that he would be doing something like this. But with his situation, he didn't think he had any knowledge on clan politics.

"Of course," Arashi said with a large grin on his face. Rubbing his neck he wiggled himself closer to Hinata, placing his hand on her hand. "For a second there I thought I was going to screw up the speech."

"You did fine." With the formalities out of the way, they got down to talking. The first thing coming up of course being how Hinata told him about the arrangement, The Hyuuga Head had quite a laugh after hearing Arashi's reaction to finding out. But the laugh soon faded to mild concern when Arashi explained about the awkward days that followed. Cutting in at the end of the story, Hiashi felt he needed to give his thoughts on it. "Wanting to protect your loved ones is an honorable desire, but you can't neglect those loved ones in order to do so, nor can you refuse assistance in it. Need I remind you that you are not the only one capable of protecting; I promise that Hinata shares the desire to protect you as much as you desire to protect her."

In response Arashi's head noticeably lowered. "I'm aware of this now. I have no excuses for not realizing this earlier. I could have saved Hina-chan from the pain she felt."

Placing her hand on his shoulder, Hinata tried to comfort him. "I know you would have, you had a lot of different emotions running through your head. I understand that now."

Feeling the love rolling off her, Arashi turned back to Hiashi. "If you won't mind telling me, what made you decide to arrange this all?"

"It's not a really complex story. Both Sandaime-sama and I had seen your feelings for each other grow over the years. So I went to him during the Chunin Exams and proposed the arrangement, with him being your legal guardian all it took was his signature. As for why, you said it yourself, it was out of love for Hinata. I wanted her to be happy, and I felt you could make her the happiest. I was proven right after you two finally got the courage to confess after Sandaime's funeral." Hinata just couldn't stop grinning, her Father had just about the happiest smile written on his face that she had ever seen. "Well this has been a good get together, now if there is nothing else I can help you with I do have other things to attend to."

As soon as he had uttered those words, Hiashi say a glint flash in Arashi's eyes, and a wide grin appear on his face. "Actually, I have a request I hope that you can fulfill."

Leaning forward, Hiashi was curious as to what the boy would ask for. "Go on, if I can I'll help you out."

Arashi's grin just kept getting bigger the more Hiashi agreed to try and help. "I want permission for Hinata to move in with me."

Hinata's jaw just about fell off when he said that and she couldn't stop looking at him as if his hair were on fire. Perhaps she had hit her head, or maybe all the excitement of the day had made her go insane. She thought she heard Arashi ask her Father if she could move in with him. She hadn't thought that something like that would have happened for years. Slowly her bugged out eyes shifted to her Father, hoping that he was not going to reach behind him and use one of the katana on Arashi.

But she was met with him letting out a small chuckle. "You have my permission." He stated plainly.

Arashi was just as surprised as Hinata was; he had half-expected Hiashi to make a run at him with the swords hanging behind him. But he had agreed so quickly, almost instantly. When his mind finally came back to him, he slowly turned to Hinata. Looking her straight in her shocked eyes he spoke. "Well, do you want to come live with me?"

"OF COURSE I DO!" She yelled as she threw herself into his arms, knocking them both to the ground. With so many incredible things happening to her that day, she half expected herself to wake up from the dream. Just as she thought this, she felt a sharp pain in her cheek. Looking down she saw that Arashi had just pinched both her and his own cheeks.

"I guess this isn't a dream Hina-chan." He said with a beaming smile.

Clearing his throat, Hiashi got the attention of the two love birds. "I do have one question."

"Of course, go ahead." Arashi stated once he had righted himself.

"Where exactly will you be staying? Do you intend to continue staying in your apartment?"

That was a problem; His apartment was on the smaller size. He didn't think it would be hard to have two people living in there, but to change Hinata's environment from the grand expanse of the Hyuuga compound to his little apartment seemed almost cruel. "At least for a time, yes." He said in determination. It was a small place, but he loved it here.

"Well how about this?" Hiashi said, a small glint appearing in his eyes this time. "Why don't you move in here? We definitely have the space."

Almost as quickly as Hiashi had agreed to let Hinata move in, Arashi responded. "No, I refuse."

This caused Hiashi's eyebrows to rise a bit. "Oh? And why is that?"

"I will provide lodging for my family. It might not be the best of places, but everyone has to start somewhere. Also, I do not intend to join the Hyuuga clan, Hinata is joining mine. I also don't think I would be able to leave Naruto all alone quite yet. I'm sorry, but I will not bend on this." Arashi stated, a determined fire blazing in his eyes.

"Good, that's just what I wanted to hear." Hiashi said with a grin. Getting confused looks back from the two teens he could only chuckle. "It was a test; I didn't think you'd accept. But I had to make sure." Reaching into his robe he pulled out a small scroll and passed it to Hinata. "This is an empty storage scroll. Hinata, go and collect your things." She smiled brightly as she got up to leave. However, before she could go Hiashi had one more thing to say to her. "Just because you're going to live over there doesn't mean that this still isn't your home. You're welcome anytime my daughter."

With that she left the two men alone and dashed up to get all of her things together. Now that she was gone, an aggressive aura seemed to wash over the room. "I'm only letting this happen because I trust you Arashi, if I didn't know things would go well I would never have allowed this."

"I'm well aware Hiashi-sama; I thank you for the confidence." He responded just as passive-aggressively as Hiashi had been.

"I do have three conditions that need to be met in order for this to be continue." Getting a motion for him to continue from Arashi, he went on to lay out his demands. "Number one, you will make her happy above all else. If what happened between the two of you on your way back to Konoha ever happens again you will pay dearly. Number two, eventually you will move into more fitting lodging. If you need financial assistance I will be happy to help you out." Arashi frowned slightly at that, if he could help it he intended to not take him up on that offer. "Lastly, and most importantly…I don't expect to have any grandchildren for a long while…do you understand?" He stated, a scary look sweeping over his face.

"I agree to all of your conditions. I don't think you need to worry about the last one for a long time. We're too young for anything like that…truthfully I don't even think we'll marry for at least a couple years. Just knowing that it's there is good enough for us for a while."

"A wise decision, I was going to suggest it if you had brought up anything about planning a ceremony anytime soon. You continue to impress me Arashi; I'm glad that I'll be gaining you as a son." Hiashi said with a smile. "It would see, that Hinata is done and on her way back down." How he knew that without using his Byakugan was beyond Arashi, it always weirded him out when he did things like that.

Turning toward the door, he was met with Hinata's beaming smile. He honestly hadn't ever seen her happier. 'And I'll make it sure that she is even happier than right now.'

With them both there, Hiashi graciously led the two of them to the main gate. Once there he gave Hinata a loving hug, and to Arashi's surprise he received one as well. "We will be announcing your betrothal at a social gathering we are putting on in a week. I expect it to be quite the night."

As he turned to leave he watched as Arashi intertwined his fingers with his daughter's. "Thank you for everything…Otou-san." Arashi said, now acknowledging that the Hyuuga Head would be his father eventually." Hiashi's smile widened as he waved them off. Turning to Hinata, Arashi gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before speaking to her. "Well…let's go home."

Tearfully Hinata agreed. "Yes, and to the new chapter in our lives."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'I wonder what Arashi and Hinata are up to?' Naruto thought, as comfortable as he was at the moment his mind couldn't help but wonder. 'What had Baa-chan wanted with Hinata, and what could Arashi have wanted in going to talk to Hinata's dad?' He then tightened his grip on the warm body snuggled up against him. The first thing he had done after the meeting with Tsunade was to go find Sasame. He had missed her terribly, that feeling had been compounded by all the things going on between Arashi and Hinata. They had gone for a walk and told each other all about what had been going on. Naruto was quite surprised when he heard that she had become a Konoha Genin just like him. Even more surprised when he heard about her exam. He had greatly enjoyed her story of going back to Tsunade afterwards when she realized she hadn't been assigned a team. The thought of her cutely blushing in embarrassment was almost more than he could handle.

After their walk and discussion, they had gone back to Naruto's apartment. After sitting down on his couch, Sasame had eventually fallen asleep on Naruto's chest. If there was a singular moment of bliss in Naruto's life, this was it. He would have loved to stay there for the rest of the week he had off. But he needed to get out and find someone to train him. 'No doubt Ero-Sennin is out of the village so that only leaves Kakashi-sensei.' He thought as he gently slipped out from Sasame's grip. Writing her a little note telling her what he was doing, he silently snuck out of his apartment. Taking off in the direction of Kakashi's place, Naruto was also deep in thought.

He was still worrying about what he had seen when he had checked up on Arashi before he told Hinata to go talk with him. After hearing his reasoning, he understood why he had been pushing himself so hard. But it had left a nagging thought in his head…why wasn't he training that hard? Arashi could do Rasengan with one hand already but he was pushing himself to be able to do two at the same time. On the other hand, Naruto was content on having to rely on Kage Bunshin. Arashi was pushing himself harder than Naruto had ever seen; he needed push himself that hard as well. That was exactly the reason he was going to see Kakashi, he wanted him to instruct him so that he could get drastically stronger.

Before he knew it, he found himself before Kakashi's door. After a swift knock and a couple grumbles heard from inside, he soon was face to face with his Sensei. "Yo, I take it the mission went well." He stated nonchalantly once he saw his student. "Come in."

"You're not excited to see me? I figured you'd at least be surprised I showed up at your door step."

"I knew you were back the instant you stepped foot inside the village." Kakashi said blankly as he tapped his nose. "Nothing smells quite like you do Naruto." He said with a chuckle before he led Naruto to his living room. Kakashi lived in an apartment much like Naruto's; it was a bit bigger and looked nicer. But it was just as lived in as his. "So, tell me about the mission." It took Naruto about an hour to go over everything, Kakashi would occasionally nod or scowl at what he was saying, he only laughed a couple times. But that was Kakashi for you. "Sounds like one crazy mission. First we liberate Wave, and now you ensure a new peaceful regime in Lightning. If we get enough missions, our team could probably unite the world!" He said with a laugh.

"So what happened around here, I heard a bit from Sasame when we met up, but that was mostly about her." Kakashi simply sighed. He didn't really want to tell Naruto about Sasuke and Lee, but he needed to. He just hoped that Naruto wouldn't fly off the handle. "HE DID WHAT?" Naruto screamed when he heard the full story. In an instant he was out the door and dashing for the hospital.

"Well…he never was one to keep his cool."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sasuke had finally been moved from the secure and guarded room he had been in and into a normal room two days prior. It was great to be able to feel his chakra again and to be able to move his arms. But he still felt pretty bad about what he had done. He had even put up with Kiba when he came and visited.

But as much as he tried not to, his mind swirled around the thought of his brother. He was currently sitting up in his bed, almost in a trance. The footsteps on a nurse hurrying down the hallway resonated in his ears; the ticking of a clock seemed to slow down as he gazed off into space. Shaking his head he brought himself out of his daze. Gripping his sheets his face contorted into a deep scowl at the thought of everything that was making him weak. His brother, this village, his team, and Naruto.

"Naruto…" He sneered with hatred laced in his voice. The kid that everyone thought was a complete and utter failure while they were growing up, had somehow surpassed him. His mind flashed back to the fight with Gaara. How he had been powerless to do anything against that monster, but Naruto had show a strength that Sasuke didn't believe existed. To go head to head against someone like that and win should have been impossible. But he had been proven wrong.

The more he thought about it the angrier he became. Having to sit there and watch Naruto summon something bigger than anything he had ever seen before, it was humiliating. But the worst was thinking back on their run in with Itachi. The first time he had seen the object of his hate in years, and he was passed off as a second hand item.

"_Why are you weak? It's not enough…your hate."_ Itachi's voice kept repeating in his head. It was enough to drive him crazy.

But he was pulled out of his emoing, by the all too familiar scream of Naruto as it seemingly got closer and closer. "Is that Naruto?" He wondered out loud. 'It couldn't be, he was out of the village on a long mission. However, if he had returned and heard about all that had happened, rushing to confront me is probably the first thing he would do. No, it has to be Naruto. No one else is that loud and stupid.'

"SASUKE!" Naruto screamed as he burst into the Uchiha's room. He was ready to give the boy a real talking to, but what he found was Sasuke standing right in front of the door, a deep glare imprinted on his face. "Sasuke?"

"Hey…Naruto." Sasuke said, the bad look in his eye deepening.

"What is it?"

"Fight me…now!" The Uchiha demanded. Around the corner, Sakura gasped when she heard what Sasuke had said. She had heard Naruto screaming as he rushed into the hospital and figured that he would end up at Sasuke's room. But she didn't think this was what would come from it.

"But didn't you just get released after fighting with other Konoha Shinobi?" Naruto growled, still pissed about what had happened. "What are you talking about?"

"Just fight me!" Sasuke screamed, his Sharingan activating instantly. Seeing that, Naruto now knew that Sasuke was totally serious. "Did you intend to save me? That Godaime Hokage or whatever…interfering with other people's affairs…"

"What? What's with you?" Naruto asked.

Stepping closer to the blond Sasuke's glare deepened. "Didn't you say you wanted to fight me? Let's do it now. Or are you too scared?" He said with a smirk, trying to goad Naruto into accepting.

In response Naruto clenched his teeth and he also began to glare. "Sasuke-kun! Wh-What's wrong?" Sakura said from behind Naruto as she stepped out from around the corner. "Naruto, please say something! All of a sudden, you just got here…why?"

Naruto's grimace then shifted into his trademark cocky grin. "You got it. I was thinking about fighting you as well."

"Stop it, both of you…ne?" Sakura said as she tried to step between the two of them.

Sasuke's focused glare didn't move, the tension was finally broken when he motioned with his neck. "Follow me, dobe." Getting a nod from Naruto, Sasuke brushed by Sakura, not even acknowledging that she was there.

Watching him walk past her, her mind flashed back to the terrible and sadistic face he had shown in the Forrest of Death when his Curse Mark had activated. The terror she had felt and the Sasuke she had known started to slip from her fingers.

By then the two had left Sakura in the room, and had proceeded to the roof. It was an open space big enough for them to fight in. The entire place was fenced in by a tall green chain fence; there were many racks that held drying sheets on them, and a set of two water holds. Coming to a stop in the middle of the roof, Sasuke turned to face Naruto.

'What is this feeling…? It's like my skin is tightening.' Naruto thought, the memory of when Sasuke first told him that he wanted to fight against him surfaced in his mind. 'Am I excited?' Popping his head up, Naruto let out a confident laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"It's not that it's funny. I'm actually happy. Just thinking about how easy it will be to take you down right here."

Sasuke clenched his teeth at the retort, his anger rising still. "What did you say? A failure like you shouldn't talk like that!"

Calmly Naruto responded in a way he knew would piss the Uchiha off even more. "At least I'm not a failure that's always dragging others down."

The image of Itachi passing him off started to appear in Sasuke's head. _"I have no interest in you now."_ With that insult on the surface on his mind, his scowl began to grow deeper.

"You son of a bitch, you idiot. Now you've gone too far!"

"Ha! Saying that is _so_ not like you. Don't tell me you wanted to fight and now you're scared, Sasuke-chaaan?" Naruto taunted.

"Just hurry up and fight me."

"First, put on your forehead protector. I'll wait for you." Naruto said, crossing his arms as he expected to wait on Sasuke.

"It doesn't matter; you won't be able to put one scratch on my forehead." The Uchiha said confidently.

"No! This is a sign of Konoha's proud Shinobi! You of all people should be able to understand that!" Naruto yelled, grabbing his own forehead protector to emphasize his point.

"That's what I call going overboard. Do you think you can boss me around?" Sasuke yelled back.

"Yeah, I do! I didn't think I had to walk on eggshells around you!"

"You're such a pain." Sasuke growled while sliding into a Taijutsu stance.

"That's because you are weak all the time, Sasuke-chan!" Naruto bellowed as he prepared for combat as well.

"NARUTO!" Sasuke screamed as he shot forward at the blond. Hearing their shouts, Sakura finally found them, but stayed in the doorway to watch their battle.

"SASUKE!" Naruto yelled in response as he charged as well. Both of them threw a hard punch out directly at the other's face, only for them both to catch the oncoming attack with their free hand. Letting go, Sasuke thrust out with a side kick, an attack that Naruto effortlessly caught. Twisting his weight Naruto moved to throw Sasuke into the wall behind him. But as he was being tossed, Sasuke shifted his momentum so that he could plant a hand. Once one was down he twisted himself to get the other down. Now with a solid platform he used his free leg to slam into Naruto's chest, sending him flying into the air.

Coming down from the hit, Naruto struck out with a fist to hit Sasuke's face. But by moving quickly, Sasuke swayed to the left, dodging the punch. Quickly the Uchiha grabbed the extended arm and flung Naruto away from him, as soon as Naruto righted himself Sasuke was on him. Pummeling him with a series of punched. He managed to deflect all of them, until he was hit with a sweeping kick and knocked back into one of the drying sheets.

Sasuke immediately rushed over to pull the sheet off him, but when he did, Naruto was gone. Looking around suspiciously, Sasuke tried to find the Blond. In a flash he saw one of the others sheets flap as something moved. Not wanting to get him by a sneak attack, the Uchiha took to the air. But he didn't notice till it was too late, that Naruto has standing on top of one of the water holds, hidden in the glare of the Sun. Leaping at Sasuke, Naruto connected with a hard punch that knocked Sasuke back and onto the green fence.

"Quit messing around!" Sasuke yelled once he had landed. Shooting back at the still airborne Naruto, he connected with a punch that rocketed Naruto back into the rows of sheets.

Landing Sasuke rushed at Naruto who was flailing to try and get out from under the sheets. Grabbing him, Sasuke pushed until Naruto was backed into the fence. Once there he began hitting him with bone cracking punches, one after another.

Sakura had to look away as she heard the punches connecting. But as soon as she shut her eyes, she heard something devastatingly hard connect. When she looked she saw Naruto emerging from the sheet with an extended leg, and Sasuke sailing away from where he had been.

"Get a hold of yourself!" Naruto yelled as the two of them ended up on the top of the fence, in a flash they both leapt towards the other, engaging each other in mid air. Each throwing out a flurry of attacks, but each one was parried or dodged. As they landed they both went back to glaring the other down. The break was stopped when Naruto threw up his favorite hand seal. "Tajyuu Kage Bunshin Jutsu!" With a large puff of smoke, Sasuke was suddenly surrounded by a hundred Narutos.

'How does he have the stamina to make so many?' Sasuke thought as the clones started to rush him. Because they were divisions of the original they weren't as strong, but they were still very annoying. Dodging in between attacking Bunshin, Sasuke would take one down with a hard punch, before taking a couple out with a leg sweep. Propping himself up with his hands, he dispatched two more who were trying to make an aerial assault on him. But this turned out to be a bad move. He saw four Bunshin sliding in on him ready to connect with a move he knew could be bad.

"U-Zu-Ma-Ki!" The four Bunshin shouted as their attacks connected as sent Sasuke rocketing skyward. But a fifth Bunshin was already waiting for him once he was in the air. On a direct course to connect with a devastating heel kick, Sasuke began going through hand signs as he watched himself get closer to the oncoming attack. "Naruto Rendan!" He screamed as he swung his leg downwards, hoping to send Sasuke crashing through the roof of the Hospital.

But with a twist of his body, Sasuke deflected the blow with his arm. Now facing the Bunshin, he noticed that Sasuke's hands were holding the Tiger seal. "Katon: Goukakyuu Jutsu!" He yelled as a huge fireball plummeted down on all the Bunshin that were still on the ground. He was met with the satisfying sound of the Bunshin exploding and the view of the entirety of the roof engulfed in flames.

"Naruto!" Sakura gasped as she watched the attack hit.

But something wasn't right as Sasuke watched the flames start to swirl and disperse. He was surprised when he looked and saw two Narutos in the center, and a small spiraling ball of chakra being formed in their hands. 'What is that? What is that Jutsu?' The Uchiha thought as he started to fall back to earth. The flames had finally been blown away, so now Sasuke could fully see the attack that Naruto had ready in his hand, the Bunshin beside Naruto dispersed when it looked like the attack was finished being formed. "Shit!" Sasuke said as he grabbed a hold of his left arm. In an instant, lightening starting to explode from his hand and the loud and distinct sound of the Chidori could be heard. "Chidori!" Sasuke yelled as he began to plummet back towards Naruto.

Sakura could only look on in horror, Sasuke was going to use the attack he had almost killed Lee with on Naruto. "Stop…" She barely managed to squeak out.

"I'll definitely win!" Naruto yelled as he shot towards the approaching Uchiha, his Rasengan ready to be thrust into his attacker.

"Don't be so confident!" Sasuke yelled back.

"Stop it you two!" Sakura managed to get out, but still at normal speaking level, there was no way that they had heard her. The two of them were streaking for each other, both bellowing out in rage as they readied their attacks. "STOP IT!" Sakura suddenly screamed as she sprinted out at them on a desperate attempt to stop them.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Quite a lot has happened now that Team 7 is back in Konoha. Hinata is made Tsunade's apprentice, and ends up being able to move in with Arashi. While Naruto finds himself in a far more serious battle than he ever anticipated, all he wanted was to knock some sense into Sasuke. But we all know that's next to impossible.**

**As usual, I took longer to write this than I originally thought. I only had the first sentence done for about two months, and then I sat down and wrote the rest in a day…it's funny how writer's block works sometimes. Hopefully more chapters will be coming out faster. I'm really going to try. I just hope that you'll also try to leave me some good reviews!**

**Jutsu List:**

**Yuki Bunshin Jutsu: Snow Clone**

**Tajyuu Kage Bunshin Jutsu: You know it**

**Katon: Goukakyuu Jutsu: Fire Release: Grand Fireball Technique**

**Chidori: Chidori**

**Rasengan: Rasengan**


End file.
